‘Not something that should be majorly concerning’ local medical experts react to new COVID-19 variant

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a new variant for COVID-19 has made it’s way to the Midwest. As they are watching it in states like the Dakotas and Montana.

“The thing that we would most be concerned about, is this going to cause an uptick in hospitalizations,” said  Brenton Nesemeier, the Dir. of Field Services with the North Dakota Health and Human Services. “Is this going to cause an uptick in outbreaks in nursing homes. Is this going to cause severe illness in those that are under-immunized or not vaccinated for COVID.”

The new variant, known as EU.1.1, makes up about 1.7% of COVID cases across the nation. The North Dakota health department is monitoring the situation as well.

“It is a strain of Omicron so we would just expect the symptoms to be very similar and act in a similar way to Omicron,” said Nesemeier. “So we aren’t really seeing anything out of the norm but it might be to early to tell.”

What about the Fargo-Moorhead area where a lot of travel comes in and out? Dr. Bertha Ayi with Essentia Health says you shouldn’t be too concerned.

“The CDC is monitoring it so it’s not something that should be majorly concerning.,” said Dr. Ayi. “And the certain symptoms are no different than the regular ones that we know.”

At this time, Dr. Ayi doesn’t know if a patient has come in with the variant. That’s because it is normally tracked on the national level by entities like the CDC.

“So it’s not something that a patient comes into the hospital we say, ‘Oh this one has EU variant or XX variant’.” said Dr. Ayi.

While they are still studying EU.1.1, medical experts say you should still be cautious. Nesemeier says that medical groups across the nation learned a lot because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now prepared if another outbreak was to occur.

“I think we learned a lot from the pandemic and we learned that initially we were unprepared,” said Nesemeier. “We are taking steps through federal grant dollars and money allocated to us from the state to prepare better for something like that in the future.”

According to COV-Spectrum, Utah has the most cases of EU.1.1 in the nation.