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New, highly transmissible Covid-19 variants “stand to reverse” the nation’s control of the pandemic and could “undermine all of our efforts” against the disease if the virus is left to proliferate in different parts of the globe, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Top U.S. health officials have warned in recent weeks that the emergence of highly contagious variants, particularly the B.1.1.7 strain that emerged in the U.K., could reverse the current downward trajectory in infections in the U.S. and delay the nation’s recovery from the pandemic. (Higgins-Dunn, 2/24)

A new ensemble forecast published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the daily Covid-19 death rate will slow in the coming weeks -- good news following more than a month of declining case and hospitalization numbers. But now is no time to let up on safety measures -- for several reasons -- according to experts. (Maxouris, 2/25)

KHN: Have A Case Of A Covid Variant? No One Is Going To Tell You

Covid-19 infections from variant strains are quickly spreading across the U.S., but there’s one big problem: Lab officials say they can’t tell patients or their doctors whether someone has been infected by a variant. Federal rules around who can be told about the variant cases are so confusing that public health officials may merely know the county where a case has emerged but can’t do the kind of investigation and deliver the notifications needed to slow the spread, according to Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. (Jewett, Aleccia and Pradhan, 2/25)

California has surpassed 50,000 COVID-19 deaths, a tally that came as Los Angeles County reported a backlog of more than 800 deaths over the autumn-and-winter surge. The count comes as daily coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths have dropped considerably in recent weeks, although some scientists remain concerned about the potential spread of mutant variants that are more contagious and possibly more lethal. While California has the largest number of COVID-19 deaths of any state in the nation, it ranks 32nd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for COVID-19 deaths per capita. (Lin II and Healy, 2/24)

Early studies show the coronavirus variant that’s spreading widely across California is somewhat resistant to antibodies that fight off infection, but the vaccines still should offer plenty of protection, infectious disease experts say. Antibodies generated by the vaccines, or by previous coronavirus infection, were two to four times stronger against earlier versions of the virus compared to the new variant, scientists at UCSF found in laboratory studies. They released preliminary results this week. (Allday, 2/24)

A new form of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in New York City, and it carries a worrisome mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, two teams of researchers have found. The new variant, called B.1.526, first appeared in samples collected in the city in November. By the middle of this month, it accounted for about one in four viral sequences appearing in a database shared by scientists. One study of the new variant, led by a group at Caltech, was posted online Tuesday. The other, by researchers at Columbia University, has been submitted to a preprint server but is not yet public. (Mandavilli, 2/25)

Public health officials have confirmed two more cases of Idaho residents infected with COVID-19 variants, including the first known case of a resident infected with the United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced Wednesday that the person with the UK variant infection lives in Ada County and recently traveled out of state. Officials believe she was exposed during her travels, and are working to identify people she had close contact with who may have been exposed. (2/25)