A more transmissible variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 might be circulating in Hawaii, the state Department of Health said Tuesday.
According to the DOH, four specimens exhibiting a “molecular clue” associated with the highly transmissible B1.1.7 variant of the virus were identified.
Diagnostic Laboratory Services provided two specimens to the DOH’s State Laboratories Division, and the state lab found two specimens with this “clue” among samples it proactively collects.
Dr. Christian Whelen, vice president and technical director of Diagnostic Laboratory Services, said in a Zoom interview Tuesday that only some labs use tests that can detect this molecular clue, which is an alteration in the spike protein gene.
Because DLS can detect that alternation, the lab can specifically audit for it, he said. When it’s found, the DOH is notified and the sample is sent to the state laboratory for confirmation by whole genome sequencing.
Whole genome sequencing is being performed on the specimens and is expected to be complete later this week, the DOH said.
Dr. Edward Desmond, director of the State Laboratories Division, said during the same interview that when the state first received federal coronavirus funding about a year ago, it was anticipated that the ability to do sequencing would be an advantage.
“It had the ability to help us trace the spread of the virus in communities and also in institutions, and we also anticipated it might enable us to detect mutations that could be significant for the reasons we’ve learned about.”
Variations of the virus might differ in how transmissible they are, or how they respond to vaccines, he said.
The State Laboratories Division has worked with the DOH’s Disease Outbreak Control Division to devise a method to sample COVID-19 specimens throughout the state to find those most likely to have a variant strain of the virus, Desmond said.
According to the DOH, the State Laboratories Division began performing whole genome sequencing in June 2020 and now sequences approximately 300 samples per month.
“Right now, we don’t yet know if we’re seeing B1.1.7 here,” said acting state Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble during the Zoom interview. “I think our general sense, though, is looking at what’s going on in the rest of the nation, it’s probably a matter of when rather than if.”
That strain, which is spreading through the United Kingdom, is cause for concern, she said.
Based on epidemiological studies in the U.K., it looks as if it’s more transmissible than other strains of the virus, Kemble said, but it has not been shown that the available vaccines would be any less effective.
But Kemble said having a strain that is more contagious can affect the number of people needed to achieve herd immunity, or the portion of the population that needs to be vaccinated to slow or stop transmission of the virus.
“That means it’s critically important as we push forward with the vaccine efforts that we continue to practice all of the mitigation guidance,” she said.
With a more contagious strain of the virus, Kemble said herd immunity could be reached with 80%-90% of the population vaccinated as opposed to 60%-70%.
“Some of this will depend on how it plays out in real life,” Kemble said. “When you look at how transmissible a virus is compared to others, you’re looking at it in a particular context, a particular ecology. So the U.K. was having increased transmission for a number of different reasons at that time. Based on the (epidemiology), there have been estimates made on how much more transmissible (this strain) is, but until you see how that behaves in your actual environment, you don’t know for sure.”
The DOH also said Tuesday that nine more samples of a variant first detected in Denmark in March 2020, which was discovered in Hawaii last month, also were identified.
That variant, L452R, has not been proven so far to spread more quickly or decrease the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, the DOH said.
One of the L452R variants so far identified was from Maui, one from Kauai and seven from Oahu.
Four of those individuals with that variant had a travel history to the mainland, the DOH said. Investigation is ongoing into one Maui case and four Oahu cases that had no history of travel.
Email Stephanie Salmons at ssalmons@hawaiitribune-herald.com.