More Contagious Coronavirus Variant Found In Northern Virginia

VIRGINIA — The first case of a COVID-19 variant experts believe spreads more easily has been found in Virginia, according to the state's health department.

The Virginia Department of Health said in a news release Monday that the B.1.1.7 variant was confirmed in a Northern Virginia adult resident who reported no recent travel. As of Jan. 22, VDH said almost 200 cases of the variant have been found in the U.S. in 23 states.

The variant was first identified in December 2020 in the United Kingdom and has become the dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there is evidence of the B.1.1.7 variant being transmitted more efficiently than other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

"The modeled trajectory of this variant in the U.S. exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March," states the CDC on its website. "Increased SARS-CoV-2 transmission might threaten strained health care resources, require extended and more rigorous implementation of public health strategies, and increase the percentage of population immunity required for pandemic control."

According to VDH, scientists are studying the impact of the variant on vaccine efficiency, but early data shows that the two authorized vaccines are effective against it.

"Viruses change all the time, and we expect to see new strains as disease spreads," said State Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver in a statement. "We know this variant spreads more quickly between people than other strains currently circulating in our communities, but we still have more to learn about whether it causes more severe illness."

Oliver encouraged Virginians to continue following mitigation measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Experts at the University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute expressed concern about the new variants' impact on cases in a weekly COVID-19 model report. If the more contagious variant becomes dominant in Virginia, which the experts expect by March in the U.S., the state could have a 10-week sustained peak of more than 65,000 new weekly COVID-19 cases from late February to late April, the latest institute model said. By comparison, Virginia had approximately 50,000 new cases during all of November.

The daily case average has been increasing since mid-November in Virginia, reaching a peak seven-day average of 6,166 on Jan. 18. The average has been showing signs of declining since that peak, but the state's fourth-highest daily case count —6,172 — was reported on Monday. This includes 1,886 cases in Northern Virginia.

Current hospitalizations have been declining in recent days but increased from 2,846 to 2,888 on Monday. This includes 554 in the intensive care units and 324 on ventilators. Northern Virginia has 550 current COVID-19 patients.

Virginia's 2,888 COVID-19 patients are part of 13,280 occupied hospital beds. There are 16,476 staffed hospital beds in all. Ventilator use among all Virginia hospital patients stands at 34 percent, and intensive care unit occupancy is at 82 percent, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

The seven-day positive average of PCR tests has been declining since Jan. 7. As of Jan. 21, the average is 12.6 percent, while Northern Virginia's average is 11.7 percent. On a statewide level, there is a seven-day average of 30,195 daily testing encounters.

On Monday, there were three new deaths reported, and no new deaths were reported on the day before. The seven-day average of daily new deaths is 49. Deaths to date total 6,081, while there have been 478,619 COVID-19 cases and 20,764 hospitalizations.

As of Monday, 458,472 people in Virginia have received at least the first COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 64,381 people are fully vaccinated. According to a New York Times analysis of vaccine rollouts in states, only nine other U.S. states have lower percentages of people with at least one vaccine dose. Virginia has 4.6 percent with at least one dose and 0.6 percent with both doses. To date, 1,105,700 doses have been distributed around the state.

Below are the latest coronavirus data updates for our coverage area from Sunday to Monday.

• Alexandria: 9,121 cases, 484 hospitalizations, 101 deaths; increase of 71 cases and one hospitalization
• Arlington County: 11,269 cases, 715 hospitalizations, 197 deaths; increase of 120 cases
• Fairfax County: 57,164 cases, 3,209 hospitalizations, 752 deaths; increase of 689 cases and seven hospitalizations
• Fairfax City: 395 cases, 27 hospitalizations and 10 deaths; increase of four cases
• Falls Church: 274 cases, 18 hospitalizations, six deaths; increase of 12 cases
• Loudoun County: 18,848 cases, 723 hospitalizations, 171 deaths; increase of 467 cases
• Manassas: 3,570 cases, 153 hospitalizations, 32 deaths; increase of 41 cases
• Manassas Park: 1,060 cases, 66 hospitalizations, eight deaths; increase of three cases
• Prince William County: 33,739 cases, 1,296 hospitalizations, 285 deaths; increase of 479 cases and three hospitalizations
• Fredericksburg: 1,418 cases, 72 hospitalizations, 14 deaths; increase of 20 cases
• Spotsylvania County: 6,697 cases, 235 hospitalizations, 78 deaths; increase of 97 cases
• Stafford County: 7,341 cases, 262 hospitalizations, 42 deaths; increase of 131 cases