3-23 COVID-19 Update: MDH Reports Widespread Transmission of B.1.1.7 Variant

3-23 COVID-19 Update: MDH Reports Widespread Transmission of B.1.1.7 Variant

The Minnesota Department of Health provided the latest public health information Tuesday at 2 p.m. regarding COVID-19 vaccines, variants, case numbers and testing.

You can watch full briefing here.

MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm:

• In Minnesota, 507,231 total cases since start of pandemic (up 870 on testing volume of 13,314 lab results)
• In Minnesota, 6,789 total deaths (up 7)
  • One of the deaths was in age 20-24 group from Anoka County.
  • This was the state’s sixth COVID-19 death of someone 24 years or younger.
  • No COVID-19 deaths reported Monday, first time that has happened since March 24, 2020.
• Minnesota’s 7-day rolling average case rate at 4.5%, highest since Jan. 23.
  • Note: 7-day average has a one-week lag period.
  • MDH considers caution threshold to be 5%

Latest on COVID-19 Vaccines:

• Nearly 2.25 million doses of vaccine administered
  • Of those doses, 1.44 million Minnesotans have received at least one dose (25.8% of population)
• 78.9% of people ages 65+ have received at least one dose of vaccine.
• Gov. Tim Walz expected to announce later this week when more Minnesotans will become eligible for vaccine.

MDH Infectious Disease Division Director Kris Ehresmann:

• Some people can be fully vaccinated, but still test positive for COVID-19. This is known as a “breakthrough” case.
  • Of the more than 800,000 fully vaccinated people in Minnesota, there have been 89 breakthrough cases so far. (less than 0.1%)
• “We should not be surprised by occasional reports of a breakthrough case,” said Ehresmann, noting that vaccines not 100% effective against contracting COVID-19. Vaccines, however, can prevent severe illness.

State Epidemiologist and MDH Medical Director Dr. Ruth Lynfield:

• Variants becoming more prevalent, raising concern about spike in cases, said Lynfield.
• Most mutations don’t have much impact, but some become more transmissible and have more severe impact.
• There’s concern the vaccines may be less effective against B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants, first discovered in California
  • 108 cases of these two variants in Minnesota, only 8 of them reported travel.
• B.1.351 variant, first discovered in South Africa, has grown to 6 cases – all involved travel to Africa and/or exposure to someone who traveled there.
• B.1.1.7 variant, first detected in United Kingdom, has 479 detected cases in Minnesota. Experts predict this will be the predominant strain in U.S. An estimated 5o to 65% of COVID-19 positive specimens tested March 16-20 in an MDH partner lab were B.1.1.7.  From March 10-15, it was 38-44% for B.1.1.7.
• “At this point, it is a race to vaccinate more people against the growth in variant cases,” said Lynfield. Millions of Minnesotans still susceptible to COVID-19. “Now is the time to buckle down and finish the job we all started.”
• NOTE: number of cases of these variants are ones only discovered in MDH lab. The actual number is presumed to be far greater.

Q&A Session and Notes:

• There is evidence B.1.1.7 variant spreading more easily among younger people, said Malcolm. Pfizer and Moderna conducting clinical vaccine trials in younger ages. Hope is by fall, there will be vaccine for kids.
• “We are seeing more interactions,” said Lynfield, such as what was observed in southwest metro (Carver County), leading to increase in B.1.1.7 cases among young people.
• On allowing youth sports to continue and in-person learning to continue: “We are still in the early stages of understanding this,” said Malcolm on the variants. “We also strongly believe the mitigation measures that are in place in the Minnesota Safe Learning Plan can be be effective against these variants.”

Also see: 3-19 COVID-19 Update: Minnesota’s 7-Day Case Rate at 4.2%, Highest Since January

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