Health officials say double-mutant coronavirus variant likely to arrive in Hawaii - Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Public health officials in Hawaii are on alert for a new COVID-19 variant that has emerged in California and are urgently advising eligible residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid serious illness or hospitalization.

Three mutant strains are already circulating in the islands, and one of them — the B.1.429 variant that originated in California — now accounts for 59% of COVID-19 specimens that have undergone genomic sequencing in the Department of Health’s State Laboratories Division, according to data released today.

But looming on the horizon to the east of the islands is a “mysterious” new variant recently detected in California, said Desmond in the Health Department’s “The Weekly Dose” video posted today on Facebook.

“I guess the ominous news is that shortly after it was reported in India, it was also reported in California, and I guess we’ve seen that what happens in California comes fairly quickly here, like the California variant B.1.429 has come here.

Although variants show resistance to vaccines, health officials say that being vaccinated against COVID-19 can reduce transmission and lessen symptoms if infected.

The DOH reported Friday that 906,777 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Hawaii so far, with 31% of the state’s population receiving at least one shot.

DOH spokesman Brooks Baehr said today that Hawaii had received 90,080 doses this week, including 21,300 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Supplies of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be extremely limited nationwide until federal regulators approve production at a Baltimore manufacturing plant with a pattern of quality-control lapses, the White House’s pandemic response coordinator said Friday.