Month: January 2021

A Washtenaw County woman has contracted a coronavirus variant which is believed to be more contagious, the state health department announced Saturday.  The woman had recently traveled to the United Kingdom, where the variant originated, and is now the only known case of B.1.1.7 in Michigan, which joins 16 other states where the variant has been identified.  While the woman is the only known case in the state, it is possible there are more that have not been identified. Two new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed from close contacts of the woman, but it is not yet known whether they are infected with the variant.  Her close contacts have been identified and are in quarantine. More:Michigan reports 1,932 new coronavirus cases, 103 deaths Saturday "The discovery of this variant in Michigan is...

5,657 COVID-19 cases, 74 additional deaths reported in Massachusetts Estimated active cases more than 98,000 Updated: 5:03 PM EST Jan 16, 2021 The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported an additional 5,657 confirmed COVID-19 cases Saturday, bringing the statewide total to 444,028 since the start of the pandemic.State health officials also added 74 new confirmed COVID-19-related deaths to the state's total, which is now 13,305.An estimated 98,317 cases are active across Massachusetts, according to the report. This is the highest total reported by the DPH since it began releasing the statistic in early November.Click here to see a graphica...

The first case of a COVID-19 variant that is said to be more contagious has been identified in Dallas County, according to county officials. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Saturday that the variant was identified in a Dallas man in his 20s who had no recent history of travel outside the U.S. The man is stable and is in isolation. The health department is working to identify and notify anyone who had close contact with the man. Jenkins said genetic sequencing showed the infection was caused by the variant. It is the third case in Texas caused by the variant and the first in North Texas. The two other cases were reported in Harris County and Nueces County. "The emergence of strain B.1.1.7, while inevitable given the mobility of the modern world an...

The new coronavirus variant first seen in the United Kingdom is likely to become the dominant strain in the United States by March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new report Friday. The mutation is believed to be more contagious, and research shows it could experience "rapid growth" in the early part of this year.  The CDC explored a number of different scenarios involving the strain, which experts believe is about 50% more transmissible than the original. In each one, the new strain made up the majority of cases in the U.S. within the next two months.  "Multiple lines of evidence indicate that B.1.1.7 is more efficiently transmitted than are other SARS-CoV-2 variants," the CDC said.  The variant, known as B.1.1.7, was first detected in the U.K. in ...

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox. Allegheny County on Saturday recorded 526 new coronavirus cases, as recent numbers continue to drop below the 1,000 case mark. Reports haven’t reached 700 cases in more than a week. The county has reported nine days of at least 1,000 new cases, but hasn’t posted one in the last two weeks, according to data from the Allegheny County Health Department. Thirty-eight additional deaths were reported Saturday, lifting the county’s toll at 1,221. That’s 135 more deaths than this time last week. The dates of death ranged from Nov. 28 to Thursday. One death was from November, while 27 were from December. Wednesday’s numbers included 74 deaths, a record high...