Livingston County Health Center has received lab confirmation from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services of both U.K. and Indian variants of COVID-19 circulating in Livingston County.
The UK version is labeled a variant of concern by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and has shown to be 50 percent more contagious than the original virus.
The Indian version is labeled a variant of interest by the CDC, seems to take a smaller viral load to infect, and may be up to 50 percent more contagious than the U.K. variant.
The Missouri Department of Health estimates around 80% of current cases of COVID-19 in the state have been caused by the U.K. variant.
Livingston County Health Department Administrator Sherry Weldon says, “We now know that Livingston County has two highly contagious COVID-19 variants circulating in the community. The good news is that treatment and prevention remain the same. The bad news is, without the help of our county residents, our hands are tied at doing much to slow down the spread of these variant cases locally.
Weldon went on to say, “Everyone in this county from individuals to businesses and places of worship should be ultra-vigilant about prevention measures at this time. We need to go back to what we were doing at the beginning of the pandemic to slow the spread of this virus.”
Weldon also says all three types of vaccine being used in the United States have proven effective against the variants circulating in the nation. By lessening symptoms of COVID-19 and reducing hospitalization and death. Residents can get vaccinated on a walk-in basis at the Health Center from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. There is no out of pocket cost.
