The state Department of Health and Human Services says it’s not shifting its coronavirus mitigation strategy amid news that a highly contagious variation of COVID-19 has reached Michigan.
“No changes at this time,” MDHHS spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin said Tuesday afternoon. “We continue to monitor for any additional cases of the variant.”
One Michigan medical expert agreed that “it’s not time to panic.” Still, there’s widespread acknowledgement the variant could change the trajectory of the pandemic in Michigan and elsewhere, considering how it already has ravaged the United Kingdom.
A Washtenaw County woman was diagnosed with the variant known as B.1.1.7 over the weekend, MDHHS confirmed. Since then, seven others appear to have caught the virus from the woman; MDHHS is now working to determine if these positive cases involve the B.1.1.7 strain.
7 COVID-19 cases tied to Washtenaw County woman who has UK variant
The variant doesn’t make people more ill, but it does appear to be roughly 50% more transmissible than other variants. More infections mean more hospitalizations, which could further stress the health-care system. More infections also are likely to result in more deaths.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged a quick response against the highly infectious strain. Otherwise, the CDC said, B.1.1.7 could become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States by March.
“It can spike a region really fast,” said Emily Toth Martin, a University of Michigan epidemiologist. “If you look at the models, you have to act faster. Your response to changing mitigation and restrictions have to be implemented more quickly.”
During a Tuesday press briefing, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer indicated she’s keeping a close eye on the situation, saying it heightens the urgency around the state’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
“We’re aware the new variant has been detected here,” she said. “Maybe it’s not more deadly, but more people get it, which means more fatalities, so we’re in a race to vaccinate people” as quickly as possible.
“It’s a race against this variant,” she said.
That said, Dr. James Richard, a pathologist at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, said that he’s not overly concerned.
“This is not a time to panic,” he said. “It is a time to stay the course.”
Richard noted the variant can be prevented through the same strategies that work against the other strains of COVID-19: masking, social distancing, hand hygiene and avoiding crowds, especially indoors.
He pointed to his hospital colleagues as an example that those strategies can be effective. “We have staff members who work around COVID-positive people every single day” and yet the coronavirus infection rate among hospital staff is lower than the general public, Richard said. “I have to believe that measures such as wearing a mask or a face shield or washing your hands a lot makes a difference.”
He said that news that B.1.1.7 is now in Michigan is motivation to double down on those strategies.
“It’s a remainder there’s no reason to let up now,” he said. “This is sort of a stimulus to remind us that the disease is still out there, and we have to do do everything we can to prevent it.”
Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare in Traverse City, said it remains unclear how the variation will impact Michigan.
“The good news is that the testing capability we have does test for that variant and the vaccine appears to work for that variant,” she said.
“But with a relatively low percentage of our population vaccinated today,” there is concern the variant will spike the number of COVID-19 cases -- and hospitalizations, she said.
“We’re sort of expecting that, or at least preparing for it,” just based on the experience with the variant in the U.K, Nefcy said.
One silver lining of the variant, Nefcy said: It could encourage vaccine-hesitant people to change their minds.
“There’s the potential this will motivate people who are eligible for the vaccine to get it,” she said.
Read more on MLive:
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