Here are the 5 COVID variants, including 1 that has recently made its way to New Jersey
Updated Jan 28, 2021;
Posted Jan 28, 2021
Dr. Anna Padykula injects a woman with the COVID-19 vaccine at the Hartung Recreation/Health Center in Kearny on Jan. 21, 2021.
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Multiple variants of the coronavirus are spreading around the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is in viruses’ nature to constantly mutate, meaning new strains of a virus are expected to occur over time. Sometimes these variants disappear after they emerge, and other times they persist.
While thousands of variants of the coronavirus have been discovered, some have been found to spread more easily and quickly than others specifically strains first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, each of which are explained in greater detail below.
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Rutgers researchers have been awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health in support of the creation of a national collaborative network seeking to identify risk and protective factors that may allow clinicians or public health professionals to predict which children are at greatest risk for serious illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection, the virus that causes COVID-19.
While children are less likely than adults to become severely ill, some develop severe acute respiratory illness; they also are susceptible to multisystem inflammatory syndrome of children (MIS-C), a critical illness that can occur several weeks after infection.
The two-year grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the NIH will support the development of a national network of networks, thus building an infrastructure that ensures that children from around the country can be a part of the study. The project is designed to incorpor
A coronavirus variant discovered in Brazil has caught the eye of public health officials.
The variant, known as P.1, was recently confirmed in Minnesota, and is thought to be more infectious due to its large number of mutations. It is not yet clear whether this variant causes more severe illness, but research is being done.
Until more is known, it is crucial to continue following COVID-19 safety guidelines to minimize the spread of the virus.
A coronavirus variant that was discovered in Brazil has caught the eye of public health officials, including Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He told
How the new coronavirus variants affect us here in NJ
New coronavirus strains continue to be identified across the globe, especially in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. The new variants have even reached New Jersey with two cases so far being reported.
David Cennimo, assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and pediatric infectious disease expert, said most people would define a variant as something that has changed enough that we have to be uniquely aware of it.
The variant first seen in the U.K. is the most studied and the most well understood. British health officials noticed their case numbers shot up around the holidays. Cennimo said that was happening at the same time the U.K. was looking at a new virus that s had changes in its genetic code. Could that be accounting for the increase in cases?