The Director of Health at Yarmouth is asking the state Department of Public Health to improve vaccination clinics in Cape Cod, as several variants of COVID-19 P. 1 are detected in Barnstable County.
“We want an emergency vaccine now,” fitness director Bruce G said Saturday. Murphy.
A woman from Barnstable County, the first user in the state to show the P. 1 variant, was first discovered in Brazil, the DPH reported on March 16.
On Friday night, a DPH official told The Times in an email that “additional variants of P. 1 have been known in Barnstable County and elsewhere. “
The DPH said how many additional instances of P. 1 were detected on Cape Cod, however, Murphy stated that he estimated 20 based on the control effects and what he had heard from other fitness directors.
Murphy said a momentary variant of concern, variant B. 1. 1. 7 first discovered in the UK, was also detected in Barnstable County.
The news is a source of fear for public fitness officials, as variants P. 1 and B. 1. 1. 7 are more communicable than the popular COVID-19 infection.
The P. 1 variant “appears to be able to oppose the immunity of past infections, which can lead to reinfections,” said Dr. Kevin Mulroy, quality director of Cape Cod Healthcare, last week after the first P. 1 screening at Barnstable. County.
“We see double digits with the P. 1 variant. That’s why we want emergency vaccination sites established,” Murphy said Saturday.
Cape Town is in the midst of a third wave of coronavirus that has taken seven Cape Town cities to the red zone in the face of the threat of coronavirus transmission from the state and led Barnstable Public School officials to transfer to distance education on Thursday and Friday.
Barnstable school superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said Friday that more than a hundred academics have tested positive for coronavirus in the past two weeks.
She said there is evidence that a small number of cases at Barnstable High School were hired by contact at the school.
Parents, guardians and academics will be informed if the school district will reopen as a user on Monday, Mayo-Brown said.
In addition to Barnstable, Yarmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee, Dennis, Harwich and Brewster are in the red zone of the state due to the threat of transmission.
Barnstable’s positivity rate of just over 10% is five times higher than the state’s positivity rate for COVID-19 tests, which is around 2%.
Last week, the DPH sent cell phones to Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, M. E. West Yarmouth Primary School, Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in South Yarmouth and Barnstable High School in Hyannis.
The DPH team will return to Melody tent today, Murphy said.
Barnstable County health officials told Cape Codders to assume that variants of fear are circulating and continue to practice COVID-19 protection protocols. , social estating, group avoidance, staying at home when you are sick, getting tested if you have symptoms or are known as close contact with a user with COVID and getting vaccinated.
A third variant, B. 1. 135, a south african local, also circulates in Massachusetts, less widely than B. 1. 1. 7. More than 400 cases of B. 1. 1. 7 have been detected in the state.
The DPH stated that “surveillance tests for variants of fear are taking a position in the state. “
A DPH official said genetic sequencing to stumble upon variants of fear was performed on a subset of samples, adding a hundred week-consistent samples at the state fitness lab.
The state lab also coordinates with the Broad Institute, hospital laboratories, and university partners who have the ability to perform sequencing, a DPH official said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also funded the surveillance sequencing of 3 national laboratories reporting the effects on HPD, the official said.