HONOLULU — Friday afternoon, Gov. David Ige confirmed that the B117, or UK variant, strain of COVID-19 has been detected in Hawai‘i.
The UK variant was first detected in England in December, and has been found to be “highly transmissible,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier this week, the state identified four different strains on the islands that “exhibit a molecular clue associated with the UK B117” strain in addition to nine samples of the Denmark L452R strain found last week, some without travel history.
The B117 case is a patient on O‘ahu without any history of travel, state Department of Health Acting Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble said.
Kemble said contact tracing is ongoing.
“We are right away investigating those cases actively, identifying contacts and making sure that cases are in isolation and contacts are in quarantine,” Kemble said.
As part of the state’s disease-surveillance system, the DOH has the capability to do whole-genome sequencing, which in under a week can analyze the genetic material of the virus and identify these different types of strains, DOH Laboratories Division’s Dr. Edward Desmond said. There was only one confirmed B117 case as of Friday afternoon, with two more cases being sequenced by the end of the weekend.
“While we are worried that there is a B117 case here … we’re concerned because it’s more infectious,” Lt. Gov. Josh Green said.
Recent studies show the variant has been found to be up to 60% more infectious. “It is something that can spread more aggressively,” Green said.
However, Green assured that vaccinations do work on the B117 variant. The state doled out close to 190,000 dosages as of Thursday.
On Kaua‘i, more than 14,000 dosages have been given, Mayor Derek Kawakami said Friday.
“Over the next few weeks, we will focus on providing second doses for Phases 1A/1B, as well as providing mobile clinics for homebound residents who are eligible,” Kawakami said.
The county is expecting to move into the next phase, 1C, which includes kupuna 65 to 74, residents 16 to 64 with high-risk health conditions, and all other essential workers not included in Phases 1A or 1B, “as soon as vaccine supply allows,” Kawakami said.
In recent weeks, the state has seen lower case counts and fewer hospitalizations. As of Friday, the state has a seven-day average positivity rate of 1.83%, has only 57 people hospitalized across the state, and has an average of 85.1 new daily cases, significantly down from January.
“The good news is, we know how to slow the spread, and we’ve proven we can be successful,” Ige said. “These actions will continue to deter the spread of COVID-19 here on the islands.”
•••
Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
It’s OK that virus mutate into variants, it’s only natural and they are supposed to in order to survive to perpetuate themselves.
The important thing is that a healthy human nervous and immune systems rare stronger and more capable nd effective than the infecting virus or its mutated variants,
The strong always survive and have nothing to worry bout.
As to Covid-19 virus:
All virus and bacteria adapt, evolve, mutate, or vary, over time, in their endeavor, indeed their mandatory need, to adapt to the environment they are in. Their purpose for mutating, or varying, is in order to survive and make more generations of their specie in the future.
To adapt, acclimate, evolve, mutate, and vary is to survive = SURVIVAL of a specie, whether it be a virus or the human specie. For humans to adapt to polar climates vs. equatorial, they had to adapt, acclimate, evolve, vary, and over tens of thousands of years
they developed unseen internal and visible external features to survive their climate zones where they lived on earth.
For vertebrates, other than mankind, adaptation to their environment has been going on for at least 550 million years that science knows of, and certainly even longer.
All vertebrates have immune systems, and somewhat similar to ours, 550 million years is the amount of time the longest existing vertebrates on earth have been exposed to and infected by bacteria and virus and the majority of vertebrates keep surviving in spite of infective bacteria and virus as do the bacteria and virus themselves.
All vertebrates have immune systems and just like the bacteria and virus, they, the vertebrates, also adapt and evolve, mutate and vary in order to survive and be able to co-exist with the factors of an also ever changing and evolving environment.
All living things by matter of their own nature, evolve, adapt, mutate, and vary in order to survive.
Adaptation, mutation, evolution, and variation are natural forces, actions and inclinations of nature. These dynamic changes are to be expected of living and dynamic things.
There is a saying: “The only constant thing in the universe(s) is change.” Get used to it, virus change as an adaptation to survive in their environment. Their environment is in the living things they infect, like humans and other living organisms they infect.
Things on earth that fail to evolve, adapt, mutate, and/or vary in order to survive their changing environment undergo a failure, called extinction.
And if an entire specie fails to adapt, evolve, mutate, or vary, that entire specie becomes extinct and no longer exists on earth; no matter how many millions of years they may have previously evolved, mutated, and varied while on earth.
Failure to adapt = extinction. Don’t ever forget that.
Humans are vertebrates and have also been a part of evolution, adaptation, and variation to the external and internal environment of our bodies just like the others vertebrates.
So when news reports tell us the scientists are saying the Covid virus, or any virus is mutating, the virus is undergoing variations, well so what, big deal, they have been mutating since time began for them on our puny planet.
How often do virus mutate into variants of their original selves? As often as they need to in order to survive. The greatest threat to disease virus that infect the human specie is the human immune system, and the human immune system’s own variety of defensive cells, there are several cells, antibodies being just one type that attack virus.
An enormous feature of medical care is it’s overlooking of the incredible intelligence and capability of the human body. The inborn, or innate, intelligence of the human body stems from the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord (the Central Nervous System), connecting to the Peripheral Nervous System (which organizes and communicates with the body’s cells, tissues, organs, and body systems like vascular, respiratory, hormonal/glandular, digestive, reproductive, excretory, and immune system, etc.).
Within a few days of conception of a new human life, the Nervous System takes control of the development of each human being during pregnancy and throughout life “on the outside”, an extraordinary symphonic orchestration of 30 Trillion cells, coordinated by 7 trillion nerve cells, that communicate like an electric system, you can refer to it as the greatest computer on earth.
The human immune system is organized to deactivate disease virus and in about 98% of the people this immune response of deactivating virus and excreting them from the body is done without symptoms. That is how capable the Nervous and Immune systems are.
In order to eliminate disease virus, the human immune system must make a bio-identical Antibody to match any and every virus that disease infects a person with.
It has a been determined by American scientists funded by the NIH, National Institute of Health, in 2019, that the human immune system, organized by the human nervous system, can bio-identical match specific different disease virus by producing a Million Trillion different unique antibodies.
That means the human immune system can bio-identically identify the exact particular virus out of a Million Trillion different disease virus that may infect our bodies.
Once the exact shape of the virus is discovered by the immune process, the immune system must then make / produce enough exact same bio-identical antibodies to deactivate or “kill off” those disease virus in our bodies.
That means our bodies must make up to a million trillion exact antibodies to match the virus causing the disease.
The immune process is described by scientists in identifying which exact antibodies it must match, create, and replicate in order to rid the body of the disease virus, such as Covid and its variants.
The description is explained like finding the correct key to fit a lock, like the lock on the front door of your house, except the correct key, call it the Antibody, must fit the virus, call it the front door lock.
Except the correct key must be made that will fit the one lock out of a million trillion different locks.
How do you find the correct Antibody to fit one of a variety of a Million Trillion Virus? In order to “kill off,” or deactivate the “colony,” of disease cauing virus in your body, your immune system must make billions, if not trillions, of exact antibodies for this years variety of virus that has mutated from last year’s virus seasonally circling the planet from north to south to north for attraction to seasonal cold climates.
As well as circling the globe back and forth East to West to East by people to people spread via modern speed transportation by way of air, land, and water.
So how do scientist exactly match one out of a million trillion virus and then produce and duplicate billions to trillions of Antibodies to wipe out that particular one out of a million trillion virus.
The answer is scientists CANNOT bio-identical match, duplicate and produce Billions to Trillions of Antibodies to wipe out any particular virus.
But the human Immune System organized by each person’s Nervius System can do this and do it throughout life without needing any outside help, except the Nervous and Immune Systems need no interference.
And herein lies the error of the medical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, petroleum industry that makes and sells vaccines.
These medical prescription drug dealers, selling 4.4 Billion prescription drug medications a year to 80% of the American public hooked on prescription drugs, think or deceive the public into believing that the intelligence of the human Nervous and Immune Systems that built and organize each human being from conception to end of life, cannot eliminate disease virus from its own body with the innate intelligence that built their body.
For scientist to think they can bio-identical match 1 out of a million trillion wild virus and put it in a vaccine is rather pompous, ignorant, and arrogant. Although it is successful in profiteering $Trillions of dollars a year in income.
Oka Kuo,
Your rambling is largely non-sensical. Is there another word for your million trillion? How many zeros are there? Let’s see, one million = 1,000,000, and one trillion = 1,000,000,000. Let’s do the simple math, 1,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000,000, or 1x10exp15. What do you call that? We call that a quadrillion.
Let me try to inform you of the modern scientific method. This is more for our intelligent readers. The corona virus is an mRNA virus that can be rapidly sequenced to determine the linear composition of nucleotides. Mutants are colloquially called variants that have altered nucleic acid sequences which encode different amino acids in translated viral proteins.
Scientists are quickly reading the nucleic acid (nucleotide) sequences of COVID-19 mutants, and thus are able to very simply and rapidly modify individual vaccine proteins in a singular, targeted manner without having to attempt to generate “a million trillion” variants.
Pompous, ignorant, and arrogant?
You insult your own and your readership’s intelligence.
Woof!!
If they’ve found the variant strain B.1.1.7 COVID-19 on Oahu, that means the protocol for health guidelines for Oahu will not end. It will continue. And we are still in a pandemic. Despite athletics opening things up for the greater public by allowing themselves travel and playing time, they have given the public a glimpse into what COVID-19 is and maybe the public have caught on and can relax on the guidelines for following on the rules. And that there is no pandemic. As you can see though, those restrictions for gathering is still in play. No one is attempting to watch any games. On the mainland it is a different story. In Florida, one of the worst outbreak for COVID-19, the superbowl is a major event for a lot of people. They will come together anyway. 22,000 people are expected to be at the stadium. No social distancing and possibly no face mask worn. Is this a propaganda thing for some people? Following the guidelines was set because there are no 100% vaccines that work on the virus. But yet people disobey the rules on COVID-19. I see a mix of feelings over the nation when it comes to interpreting what exactly is COVID-19. Some say it’s no big deal and go ahead with whatever they had planned. Usually sports. While others are very cautious about everything. I think it is articles like this that make the public more aware of what is at stake. And what should be done. I hope people everywhere follow proper COVID-19 protocols. This helps out everyone.