What we know about the COVID variant found in the U.K.

BERKELEY, Calif. - Health officials in California say the state lab and other labs are doing DNA sequencing and checking COVID test samples to see if any Californians have been infected with the new coronavirus variant that was first detected in the U.K.

"So far, none of these labs have detected this strain in California, but we are now changing some of our protocols, and that's a lot of our testing sites are starting to ask about travel history for people who have traveled to Britain," said Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano.

On Tuesday, the first confirmed U.S. case of the new SARS-CoV2 coronavirus strain was detected in a 20-year-old man in Colorado. In a statement, Colorado health officials said the man had not traveled to Great Britain, indicating the new strain likely is circulating already in the United States.

The Colorado state lab found the man's coronavirus sample had eight mutations on the spike protein specific to the new strain, which scientists believe make it more transmissible.

"So we're dealing now with a virus that can transfer from person to person with much greater facility. That's very disturbing," said Dr. John Swartzberg, a clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  

Swartzberg says the new coronavirus variant does not appear to cause more severe symptoms or illness, and he says the current vaccines likely will work on the new strain.

"The vaccine tells our body to make a variety of antibodies to attack that spike protein. So even though there have been a few changes in that receptor binding domain, we still have plenty of other antibodies that can attack it," said Dr. Swartzberg.

The new strain brings new concern that it could be responsible for the recent surge in COVID cases. There is also concern that the vaccine rollout has been too slow to keep up with infections.

The Trump administration suggested that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of December.

According to the CDC, however, only 2.1 million doses have been administered, with 11.4 million vaccine doses distributed to states so far.

"Well, I think the main frustration is how slow it's going just because of the limited amount of vaccine," said Farnitano. "We have a population over a million people, and we've been able to vaccinate slightly over 1% of the population and we know that we need to get to 70-80% of the population to really get the pandemic under control.

Farnitano says they're receiving 10,000-15,000 vaccine doses a week but had lined up staffing to do far more.

"We're pulling in paramedics, we're pulling in the private hospital staff, nursing students," said Dr. Farnitano, adding that they are prepared to turn local college facilities into mass vaccination sites if supplies arrive, "We are prepared to administer and distribute as much vaccine as the federal government can send us."

A spokesman from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Tuesday, "Operation Warp Speed remains on track to have approximately 40 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year and, as of today, has allocated 20 million doses for first vaccinations, with distribution of the 20 million first doses spanning into the first week of January as states place orders for them."

President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday the current pace is too slow.

"The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind, far behind," said the President-elect.

Biden said he plans to use the Defense Production Act to ramp up vaccine production once he takes office, with a goal of having 100 million vaccine doses administered within his first 100 days in office.