COVID Variants in Minnesota

COVID variants across the world have made their way to the U.S. including right here in Minnesota and now local health officials are continuing to urge Northlanders to use caution when out in the public to prevent getting these more aggressive forms of COVID.

DULUTH, Minn. – COVID variants across the world have made their way to the U.S. including right here in Minnesota and now local health officials are continuing to urge Northlanders to use caution when out in the public to prevent getting these more aggressive forms of COVID.

COVID variants are now being discovered across the U.S. including right here in Minnesota with cases connected with mutated viruses from Brazil and the U.K. So far, none have been found in the Northland.

Despite a lack of them here, local doctors say they are still concerned as these new variants can be stronger.

“Potentially that they could be more contagious,” said Dr. Andrew Thompson, the infectious disease physician. “Could they be more severe and will our current vaccines and treatments work as well against them.”

Health officials say these mutations may be 50% more contagious based on estimates. To identify these variants, special testing needs to be done to look at the whole genome of that virus. Despite them being new, you are still asked to follow current COVID prevention protocols.

“What we already know works,” said Dr. Thompson. “There’s nothing new as far as the guidance goes on how to protect yourself. Keeping your distance, masking, not gathering with others indoors, those things all work and they will work against any variant.”

It is also important to keep in mind to look at the quality of your mask when going to places where there are a lot of people.

Essentially, you want to make sure that tiny respiratory droplets don’t make it through holes and fabrics. One option is having a cloth mask over a medical-grade mask.

Vaccines also continue to work against the variant so far, but as the virus continues to remain volatile, but as the virus continues to remain volatile, health professionals have expressed concern about the vaccine’s effectiveness against future versions of the virus.