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Health

Michigan athletics on 2-week pause after outbreak of COVID-19 variant

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Michigan’s athletic department is shutting down for two weeks due to confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant, a department spokesperson confirmed with the Free Press on Saturday night. 

The shutdown will affect all sports, including sports that are currently in season like men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball (which was moved from the fall and ice hockey. The pause will start immediately.

The student journalists at the Michigan Daily were the first to report it.

No changes being made to any other university operations.

“It is our understanding the state did not recommend changes beyond athletics,” university spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told the Free Press.

There are now five cases now confirmed with B.1.1.7, the highly contagious COVID-19 variant, in Washtenaw County. The outbreak traces back to one female student athlete, sources said.

“Canceling competitions is never something we want to do, but with so many unknowns about this variant of COVID-19, we must do everything we can to minimize the spread among student-athletes, coaches, staff, and to the student-athletes at other schools,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.

More: Wayne County man tests positive for coronavirus variant

More: Washtenaw County urges testing, warns of possible COVID-19 virus variant exposure

University public health officials are working closely with the Washtenaw County Health Department and Michigan Department of Human Health Services on additional mitigation strategies, the athletic department said in a press release.

“The university will be carefully considering additional mitigation measures. There are many unknowns that remain under investigation by U-M, local and state public health officials,” the school’s release said. “No determination has been made on how the pause may impact scheduled games beyond Feb. 7.

The new coronavirus variant transmits more easily and can lead to more positive cases, the health department said.   

“We are watching this situation as closely as possible,” said Dr. Juan Luis Marquez, medical director of the Washtenaw County Health Department. “And we ask everyone to continue to do everything they can to prevent transmission — mask, distance, avoid crowds or gatherings, clean your hands frequently, and follow isolation or quarantine guidance carefully.”

The county is urging people who visited Meijer from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and Briarwood Mall from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. last Sunday to immediately get tested for the virus. 

The state’s patient zero had a negative coronavirus test two days before she traveled Jan. 3 from the U.K. to the U.S., said Susan Ringler Cerniglia, a spokeswoman for the Washtenaw County Health Department. 

FROM LAST WEEK: Washtenaw County woman is Michigan’s first known case of coronavirus variant

The woman also tested negative for the virus on Jan. 4 and Jan. 6. She got a positive coronavirus test result on Jan. 8 and began isolation on that date. 

Most of the additional seven people who’ve contracted the virus since having close contact with the woman live in connected households, Ringler Cerniglia said, and are also in quarantine.

The B.1.1.7 variant is not more deadly and is not likely to make people more severely sick than other variants of coronavirus. But it is 1.5 times more transmissible, meaning it spreads about 50% faster than other strains of the virus circulating in Michigan.

Late Friday night, the athletic department reported it had 22 COVID-19-positive cases during the week of Jan. 16 to Jan. 22.

This isn’t the first time U-M has had issues with COVID-19. The football team shut its season down early after a COVID-19 outbreak. The shutdown included the cancellation of the rivalry game with Ohio State.

The winter term for students began on Monday, however most students aren’t on campus. The university announced in November it would cancel all housing contracts for the winter term and only allow some students on campus. 

Those who come back to campus will face a crackdown from the university on behaviors related to public health, the school said then.

“Students returning to campus in the winter will encounter a strict, no-tolerance approach to enforcing COVID-19-related policies,” the university said in its announcement. “Depending on the violation, penalties will include automatic probation, university housing contract termination, and removing university recognition for student organizations hosting or participating in social gatherings.”

In-person classes will be limited to those most effectively taught through in-person or required for licensure, the university said.

Free COVID-19 testing will be available 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Pioneer High School, 601 W. Stadium Blvd, Ann Arbor. Pre-registration is available but not required. Details: https://www.washtenaw.org/3158/Testing.

Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter. The Free Press has started a new digital subscription model. Here’s how you can gain access to our most exclusive Michigan Wolverines content. 



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Business

NC reports first case of highly-contagious COVID-19 variant :: WRAL.com

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Raleigh, N.C. — The first case of the highly-contagious COVID-19 variant has been confirmed in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services identified the first case of the variant in an adult in Mecklenburg County.

The COVID variant, called B.1.1.7., was first detected in the UK in December.

According to officials, 195 cases of the COVID variant have been reported in 21 states as of Jan. 22.

“Early data suggest that this variant may be more contagious than other variants,” said NCDHHS in a statement.

Current COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be effective against the new variant, according to officials.

“While expected, identification of this COVID-19 variant in North Carolina is concerning, especially at the same time as we are already seeing very high numbers of cases,” said Mandy Cohen, NCDHHS Secretary.

“It is more important than ever to practice the 3Ws,” she said.

Wash hands. Wear a mask. Wait 6 feet apart.

State health officials advise people to stay home except for essential activities and avoid gathering, especially indoors, with people who do not live with you.

If you absolutely must travel or be with people you do not live with, get tested in advance, keep it small and outdoors and always wear a mask.

And, of course, get an appointment for a vaccine when one becomes available to you.

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Health

UK chief scientist says new virus variant may be more deadly

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LONDON (AP) — There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain

Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.”

He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.”

“With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said.

But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.

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In contrast to that uncertainty, he said, there is growing confidence that the variant is more easily passed on than the original coronavirus strain. He said it appears to be between 30% and 70% more transmissible.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, said studies were underway to look at the transmission and severity of new virus variants.

She said so far “they haven’t seen an increase in severity” but that more transmission could lead to “an overburdened health care system” and thus more deaths.

The evidence for the new variant being more deadly is in a paper prepared by a group of scientists that advises the government on new respiratory viruses, based on several studies.

The British scientists said that although initial analyses suggested that the strain, first identified in September, did not cause more severe disease, several more recent ones suggest it might. However, the numbers of deaths are relatively small, and case fatality rates are affected by many things including the care patients get and their age and health beyond having COVID-19.

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The British scientists stress that the information so far has major limitations, and that they do not know how representative the cases included in the analyses are of what’s happening throughout the country or elsewhere.

One analysis did not find an increased risk of death among people admitted to a hospital with the new strain. In another, the odds of being admitted to a hospital with the new strain compared to the previously dominant one were no different.

There is a lag in reporting hospitalizations after infection, and a further lag from infection to death, so officials expect to learn more in several weeks.

Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said “there is quite a bit of difference in the estimated increased risk of death between the different analyses, though most, but not all, show increased risk of death,” he said.

Ian Jones, professor of Virology at the University of Reading, said “the data is limited and the conclusions preliminary. However, an increased case fatality rate is certainly possible with a virus that has upped its game in transmission.”

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British officials say they are confident that the vaccines that have been authorized for use against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain identified in the country.

But Vallance said scientists are concerned that variants identified in Brazil and South Africa could be more resistant to vaccines, adding that more research needs to be done.

Concerns about newly identified variants have triggered a spate of new travel restrictions around the world. Many countries have closed their borders to travelers from Britain, and the U.K. has halted flights from Brazil and South Africa.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there could be further restrictions.

“We may need to go further to protect our borders,” he said.

Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive for the coronavirus, the highest confirmed total in Europe.

The U.K. is currently in a lockdown in an attempt to slow the latest surge of the coronavirus outbreak. Pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people are required to stay largely at home.

The number of new infections has begun to fall, but deaths remain agonizingly high, averaging more than 1,000 a day, and the number of hospitalized patients is 80% higher than at the first peak of the pandemic in the spring.

Johnson, who has often been accused of giving overly optimistic predictions about relaxing coronavirus restrictions, sounded gloomy.

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“We will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come,” he said, adding that “it’s an open question” when measures could be eased.

“At this stage you’ve got to be very, very cautious indeed,” he said.

Vallance agreed.

“I don’t think this virus is going anywhere,” he said. “It’s going to be around, probably, forever.”

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World

U.K. Covid-19 Variant Could Be More Deadly, British Officials Say

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LONDON—British officials warned Friday that a coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. might be more lethal as well as more transmissible than previous versions of the pathogen.

The conclusions of scientists advising the British government are still highly uncertain. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised address that the variant—which has caused Covid-19 infections across the U.K. to spike and is spreading rapidly in the U.S.—could result in higher death rates.

U.S. federal health authorities have said it is likely to become the dominant variant in the U.S. by March.

“We have been informed today that, in addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant—the variant that was first identified in London and the South East—may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” said Mr. Johnson.

The tentative conclusions come as British hospitals cope with more Covid-19 patients than at any time during the pandemic. The Covid-19 death toll in the U.K. is expected to pass 100,000 in the coming week.

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World

Germany cautious to end latest COVID-19 lockdown due to risk of more contagious variant

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Amid its latest COVID-19 lockdown and a promising decline in new coronavirus infections, Germany is hesitant to ease restrictions because of the risk posed by a more contagious variant.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s 16 state governors on Tuesday decided to extend the country’s lockdown by two weeks until Feb. 14 and tighten some measures, for example requiring surgical masks — rather than just fabric face coverings — in shops and on public transportation.

On Thursday, Germany’s disease control center said that 20,398 new cases were reported over the past 24 hours, nearly 5,000 fewer than a week ago. The number of new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days stood at 119, the lowest since the beginning of November — though still well above the level of 50 the government is targeting. There were 1,013 more deaths, bringing Germany’s total so far to 49,783.

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The new variant, which has been detected in Germany and many other European countries, isn’t yet dominant there, but “we must take the danger from this mutation very seriously,” Merkel told reporters.

“We must slow the spread of this mutation as far as possible, and that means … we must not wait until the danger is more tangible here,” she said. “Then it would be too late to prevent a third wave of the pandemic, and possibly an even heavier one than before. We can still prevent this.”

Merkel said that Germany won’t be able to open up everything at once whenever the lockdown ends, declaring that schools must open first.

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“We must be very careful that we do not see what happens in many countries: they do a hard lockdown, they open, they open too much, and then they have the result that they are back in exponential growth very quickly,” she said.

She pointed to Britain’s experience in December, when the new variant took hold.

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World

Emerging evidence suggests new coronavirus variant could be problematic for vaccines

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The variant was first spotted in South Africa in October and has now been found in more than a dozen countries.

In both studies, the work was done in the lab and not in people, so more research is needed to gauge the true threat of the new variant.

In the most recent study, which was small, researchers took antibodies from six people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 before the new variant was discovered. They found to varying degrees, that antibodies for all six of the survivors were unable to fully fight off the virus.

“I think the evidence is building that these mutations — and I think other mutations — will emerge across the globe — and are emerging already — that are escaping antibodies from previous infection,” Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, told CNN. “It’s concerning.”

It’s unclear whether this means someone would be vulnerable to the new variant if they’d already had Covid-19, or what this might mean for people who’ve been vaccinated.

Sigal’s findings were very similar to those of a study released Tuesday by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa.

“When you see two groups independently arriving at same basic answer, that good — there’s more consonance that they are correct,” said Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

A third study, also released Tuesday, showed that mutations in the new variant allowed them to evade some of the immunity induced by vaccination, but it was far from a complete escape.

That study looked at far fewer mutations in the variant than the South African studies examined.

None of the studies were peer reviewed or published in medical journals.

While scientists work out whether these variants are particularly dangerous — and studies are underway in several labs worldwide — one thing is clear: Get the vaccine if you can.

“I would for sure get it if I could,” Sigal said. “My father-in-law had the opportunity to fly to Israel and get it, and I was shooing him out of the house because you can’t get it here in South Africa.”

A trio of studies

In his research, Sigal found that antibodies from all six study subjects failed to fully fight off the new variant.

“One participant had a fairly good response, but nobody escaped unscathed,” he said.

The study was posted on the website for KRISP, the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innnovation and Sequencing Platform. The other two studies were posted on a pre-print server.

In the study that had similar findings, blood was drawn from 44 people in South Africa who’d had Covid-19. Nearly all of their cases were confirmed to have occurred prior to September, which is before the variant was spotted in South Africa.

The researchers then looked to see whether their antibodies would fight off the new variant.

For about half of the 44 people, their antibodies were powerless against the new variant. For the other half, the antibody response was weakened, but not totally knocked out.

In the third study, done at Rockefeller University, researchers looked at blood from 20 people who had received either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. Different mutations in the viruses did allow some escape from some types of antibodies, but the volunteers’ immune systems threw an army of different types of antibodies at the viruses.

The Rockefeller study looked at fewer mutations than the two South African studies. It looked at three key mutations on the spikes that sit atop the coronavirus, since that’s the part of the virus targeted by the vaccines.

“That’s useful, but still not the complete story,” said John Moore, a vaccine researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The South African studies, however, used the virus itself, or a model of it, which contained eight spike mutations.

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