UK COVID Variant Continues To Spread In Montgomery County

NORRISTOWN, PA — The presence of the more contagious variant of coronavirus from the United Kingdom is continuing to grow in Montgomery County.

The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of the variant, known as B.1.1.7, has risen to 110, county officials said this week. Because of the complex genomic sequencing required to confirm the variant, it's believed to be significantly more widespread than this.

That's an increase of 30 over the past week. The county had confirmed 80 U.K. variant cases as of April 7.

"We must continue to be very, very careful," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said, noting the ongoing fourth wave of the virus.

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Officials have continued to characterize the current vaccination efforts as a "race" given the spring surge in cases. Full contact tracing is no longer available in Montgomery County, as officials are prioritizing high risk, high-spread instances.

The variant was first confirmed in the county back on Jan. 27.

In addition to the 110 cases of the U.K. variant, there have been eight cases of the Brazilian variant, two of the South African, and two of the New York in the county thus far.

More than a thousand cases of B.1.1.7 have been confirmed in Pennsylvania, and as many as 50 percent of Pennsylvania's new cases since Feb. 1 could be due to the variant, according to studies from the British research firm Helix.

The variant is believed to be a key driver in the fourth wave, which has driven Montgomery County's percent positivity rate up to 8.5 percent. It was at 8.1 percent last week, and just 5.7 percent two weeks ago.