There have been three confirmed cases of the United Kingdom COVID-19 strain — known as B117 — in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts.
That worries health officials because the B117 strain of the virus seems to be more transmissible from person to person.
“I?cannot stress enough how important it is for us to continue to get vaccinated and to continue to follow mitigation strategies. We are concerned that this variant is associated with greater risk of transmission and a greater risk of severe disease,” Dr. Cynthia Morrow, medical director for the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, said Tuesday.
Current estimates are that the UK variant is somewhere between 30 percent and 80 percent more transmissible than the original strains of COVID-19.
In Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest, health officials are blaming the B117 strain on a recent uptick in cases, and early indicators are that the virus is being spread by children.
That coincides with a recent Italian study, which focused on a small village, where 10 percent of the population contracted the virus. Sixty percent of the infected people were children, who then spread the virus to family members.
In the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, 234 new cases of COVID-19 cases were confirmed over the past week, bringing the cumulative total to 22,477.
“The slightly disturbing news is that we still have a significant number of people hospitalized, and unfortunately, our hospitalization numbers have gone up again,” Morrow said.
On Monday, 46 people were hospitalized — 32 were new admissions over the past week.
“While our case count has gone down, that’s wonderful, and our vaccination rates are going up, that’s wonderful also, our hospitalizations have gone up a little bit and we need to keep an eye on that,” Morrow said.
As of Monday, more than 150,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to people living in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts.
However, Covington and Craig County continue to trail other localities in the health districts in vaccination rates.
While 34.2 percent of Alleghany County’s population had received at least one dose of vaccine, the percentage in Covington was 27.5 percent. Craig County was at 26.9 percent.
In Alleghany County, 17.5 percent of the population was fully vaccinated, compared to 14.5 percent in Covington.
Nonetheless, almost 90 percent of people in Covington over the age of 75 had been vaccinated. The percentage for that age segment in Alleghany County was 68.6 percent.
The health districts have moved to Phase II of the vaccine distribution process, meaning that appointments are now available to the general public at clinics.
“It’s now your turn. We’ve been waiting a long time to say that and it’s finally time to say now it’s your turn. You can go ahead and get vaccinated,” Morrow said.
She said with 13,000 doses of vaccine expected to be available in the health districts next week, she hopes to see more shots administered.
She is urging the public to schedule appointments by visiting www.vaccinate.virginia.gov or calling (540) 613-6597. That hotline is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
“We have a lot of vaccine coming in next week and we are really hopeful we can move it, because that would mean a lot of people in our community are protected,” Morrow said.
This week, there were 10 breakthrough cases in the health districts, which means people still got COVID more than 14 days after being fully vaccinated.
“We would expect that. The vaccine is not 100 percent effective, but it is highly, highly effective,” Morrow said.
She said the 10 people with breakthrough cases are over 40 years of age. None were hospitalized.
Morrow said the Virginia Department of Health will soon shift its focus away from mass clinics and place more attention on targeted populations that may lack access to vaccine. That may occur by mid-May.
“As the demand and supply shift, we will be focusing our efforts more on reaching populations, vulnerable populations that may have struggled to get to some of our mass clinics,” Morrow said.
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