ALABAMA – As public health officials in Alabama coordinate a vaccination campaign to bring an end to the pandemic, a new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 threatens the state’s already overwhelmed healthcare system.
The new strain, now widespread in the UK, has been identified all around Alabama in neighboring states of Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.
“This highly communicable strain, which is more contagious than the regular strain, is very likely distributed across the country and (is) contributing to the increase in cases that we’re seeing,” said William Schaffner, professor of infectious disease at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Scientists began looking for the variant strain several weeks ago, Dr. Rachel Lee, an epidemiologist at UAB, said in a press conference Wednesday.
“I have a feeling that the variant has been in the United States a little bit longer than what we realized,” she said.
The strain has spread widely in the UK, where experts believe it is 70 percent more infectious. That recently prompted a strict lockdown across the United Kingdom, where residents are once again being told to stay home. It also caused other nations to limit travel from the UK.
According to Schaffner, unlike the UK, the United States is not tracking viral strains, due partly to a lack of funding.
“No one has an assessment of that in the United States, and that’s in part because we don’t have the capacity to sequence that many viruses,” he said.
The new variant may be spreading in Alabama at a particularly difficult time.
“Certainly (this) could take what is already a very, very serious and critical situation and make it catastrophic,” said Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association.
The state’s hospitals are seeing a surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations, nearly double from a month ago, exacerbating staffing shortages. All but 4 percent of Alabama’s ICU beds are full, and hospitals lack bed space for cancer patients undergoing surgery. They are delaying other non-COVID procedures, Williamson said.
UAB Hospital is currently housing some cancer patients overnight in nearby hotels.
Dr. Tom Weida, chief medical officer at the University of Alabama’s medical center, said the impact of the new strain may be mitigated by a vaccine, depending on how quickly it is administered.
“If folks are not taking precautions, (like) wearing masks, we can see a more significant rise in cases,” he said of the new strain. “Now that is going to be balanced some with the fact we are starting to vaccinate people.”
According to Weida, the variant is more contagious because of the way it attacks the body. That does not make mask wearing or social distancing less effective.
“This variant doesn’t make it easier for the virus to get past the mask. It doesn’t make it any easier for it to resist hand washing. What it does is it makes it easier for it to get into a cell once it gets into the body,” he said.
Dr. Landers and other state health experts say there is no reason to believe the vaccine will be less effective against the new strain.
“While there is information that this strain could be more contagious, we do not have an indication that it causes more severe disease, and we do not have an indication that the presence of this strain changes our vaccine strategy,” she said.
Nationwide, Alabama is among states that have administered the lowest number of vaccines relative to shipments received.
Alabama has vaccinated 42,810 people, mostly frontline healthcare workers, as of Thursday. That’s about a fifth of the nearly-quarter million vaccines the state has been allocated.
When it comes to Alabama’s hospitals, Williamson said they are short-staffed and under pressure, but he hesitates to estimate what it would take to get to the point of rationing care.
“If (the variant) becomes the dominant strain before we are able to get a vaccine into enough people,” said Williamson, “We’re going to have an awful lot more cases.”
