Most cases of the Brazilian version in Hawaii are in Maui County

Lab technician Heather Hex of Waikiki doctors found the results of the subsequent rapid COVID-19 antigen test at Kahului Airport on 4 May. The county began the program in hopes of determining how many cases were brought through the trip. On Monday, 61,848 passengers were tested on arrival, with 25 positive antigen test results, two of which were positive during the confirmation test. Maui News / Kehoulani Serizo Photos

The municipality of Maui, which recently faced more cases of COVID-19 variants per capita than other islands, is now seeing the majority of cases of variants first discovered in Brazil, which, according to health officials, Is more contagious and more resistant. To antibodies.

According to a report released Wednesday afternoon by the state Department of Health’s state laboratories, 36 samples were found in the state with variant P.1, 22 of which were found in Maui County and 13 in Oahu. None have been found in Kauai or Hawaii counties.

Acting state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble told a press conference on Wednesday that the p.1 version is a “of concern.”

“He has a high transmission capacity and requires high neutralization of antibodies to overcome, meaning that there will be a major concern that he may be re-infected, even if he already has a COVID strain. Ho.” This Kemble.

Earlier this month, the administrative director of Maui District Health, Drs. Mark Nishimoto said that the Brazilian version is replacing the California version, which dominated the affairs of Maui about a month ago.

Lab technician Chelsea Vincent at Waikiki Doctors works at Kahului Airport during the launch of the Maui County Post-Arrival Testing Program on May 4. According to the state health department, the municipality of Maui is now seeing the majority of cases of the first discovered variant P.1 in Brazil, which released a report Wednesday that showed P.1 type in 36 samples in the state 22 of them were found in Maui County, 13 in Oahu and none in Kauai or Hawaii counties.

They stated that the California version is 20 percent more infectious than the original COVID-19 virus, while the Brazilian strain is “Much, much more permeable than the California version.”

DoH officials said on Wednesday that the worrying version of COVID-19 in Hawaii has a higher percentage of total COVID-19 cases than ever before, and that percentage is steadily increasing. Officials insisted on vaccines to stop the spread of variants.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classify the types of anxiety due to their characteristics, including increased communicability as reported, decreased neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infections or vaccinations, and increased disease severity. DoH.

The director of the State Laboratory Division, Dr. Edward Desmond, said the worrisome variants now make up more than 90 percent of the genome sequenced by his laboratory.

Since June last year, the division has been sampling across the state and sequencing genomes for variants of COVID-19.

“We detected their first variants in January and, in just four months, they replaced the original COVID-19 strains as the most frequently found COVID strains.” Desmond said in a press release.

In Hawaii, the most widely encountered version of concern is the California version B.1.429 with 631 cumulative cases detected, followed by version B.1.1.7 with 304 cases first found in the United Kingdom The case was California with version B 1.427 40, variant P.1 was first found in Brazil with 36 cases, and variant B.1.351 was discovered in South Africa with 12 cases.

Maui County saw 242 variants of variant B.1.429 in California, 22 cases of variant in Brazil, 14 cases of variant in United Kingdom and three cases of variant B.1.427 in California.

Oahu reported 261 cases of the California version B.1.429, 201 cases of the United Kingdom version, 23 cases of the B.1.427 version of California, 13 cases of the Brazilian version, and 11 cases of the South African version.

There were 29 cases in Hawaii County, two cases each from the UK version and the California B.1.429 version, as well as the California B.1.427 version.

In Kauai County, the California version B.1.429 was found in 25 cases, while the United Kingdom version was found in three cases and the California version B.1.427 in two cases.

The most common version has changed in recent months. In March and early April, California B.1.429 variant was the dominant strain, detected 631 times by sampling in the state.

But since the end of April, the UK version B.1.1.4 has become the most prominent strain in Hawaii, accounting for at least 71 percent of the variants roaming the islands and has been detected in 304 cases, the DOH said.

Kemble said during the press conference that the UK variant is more transmissible than the California variant and may result in serious illness and hospitalization if the person is not vaccinated. The variant does not appear to evade vaccine-induced antibodies.

Health officials blamed the variants for an increase in cases and settlements during the winter and early spring in Maui County, including an outbreak at the Maui Community Correctional Center that began in February and ended in mid-February. April, after two staff members and more than 90 inmates tested positive for the virus.

Kemble said the situation in Maui County “This suggests that there was a community event initially with the broadcast of B.1.429 and then the acquisition of B.1.1.7, so we probably had to import these new forms, possibly from the continent here, and once the community. Once established in, you can see how fast these variations can spread. “

“We struggled with high case rates on Maui for several months between January and March, and it’s finally starting to decline, which is really encouraging.” This Kemble. “But it shows some difficulty in trying to stop broadcasting the version.”

* You can contact Melissa Tanji [email protected]