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By Adam Warner
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) ? The U.K. and New York City coronavirus variants now represent 51% of new COVID-19 cases in the five boroughs, officials said Wednesday.
?We?re learned a lot in the past week about the situation of variants in New York City,? said Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor Bill de Blasio?s senior adviser for public health, at the mayor's briefing. ?Unfortunately, we have found that the new variants of COVID-19 are continuing to spread.?
Varma said that the U.K. variant, called B.1.1.7, and the New York City variant, called B.1.526, ?account for 51% of new cases that we have in the city right now.? He referred to B.1.1.7 as a "variant of concern" and B.1.526 as a "variant of interest."
Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city?s health commissioner, said the B.1.526 variant ?in particular is increasing in prevalence across New York City,? representing about 39% of all samples sequenced by the Pandemic Response Lab during the most recent week with full data. That?s compared to 31% of all samples with B.1.526 during the prior week.
The B.1.1.7 variant, meanwhile, has increased to 12% of samples analyzed in the most recent week, up from 8% the prior week, according to Chokshi.
By Adam Warner
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) ? The U.K. and New York City coronavirus variants now represent 51% of new COVID-19 cases in the five boroughs, officials said Wednesday.
?We?re learned a lot in the past week about the situation of variants in New York City,? said Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor Bill de Blasio?s senior adviser for public health, at the mayor's briefing. ?Unfortunately, we have found that the new variants of COVID-19 are continuing to spread.?
Varma said that the U.K. variant, called B.1.1.7, and the New York City variant, called B.1.526, ?account for 51% of new cases that we have in the city right now.? He referred to B.1.1.7 as a "variant of concern" and B.1.526 as a "variant of interest."
Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city?s health commissioner, said the B.1.526 variant ?in particular is increasing in prevalence across New York City,? representing about 39% of all samples sequenced by the Pandemic Response Lab during the most recent week with full data. That?s compared to 31% of all samples with B.1.526 during the prior week.
The B.1.1.7 variant, meanwhile, has increased to 12% of samples analyzed in the most recent week, up from 8% the prior week, according to Chokshi.