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The Southern Ute Tribe hosted COVID-19 vaccination events on February 4, February 10, and February 11, 2021. More than 1,100 people were vaccinated. “We would like to thank the tribal staff and volunteers for the impressive planning and execution throughout the tribal testing events,” the tribal council said on February 11. Photo: Lindsay J. Box, Tribal Council Communication Specialist
Southern Ute Tribe confirms discovery of COVID-19 variant
Monday, March 1, 2021
By Kevin Abourezk
Indianz.Com

A strain of COVID-19 that has begun spreading rapidly in California has now been found on the Southern Ute Reservation in southwestern Colorado.

The Southern Ute Tribe announced that the B.1.427/B.1.429 variant (also known as L452R or CAL20C) was found in an individual who recently died on the reservation, which shares a border with the Navajo Nation.

The California State Public Health Laboratory identified the variant, and the tribe is working with San Juan Basin Public Health and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to investigate the variant’s origin through tracing and interviews.

“The Tribal Council and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe Incident Management Team issued and continues to maintain the public health orders taking the utmost caution to protect the tribal community,” the tribe said in a statement on Saturday.

The variant was first detected in Denmark in March 2020 and spread rapidly in California from 4 percent of COVID-19 cases to 35 percent between November 2020 and January. It’s spread to 19 states and six countries and is considered more communicable than more common strains of the virus, though it isn’t considered as communicable as the UK variant.

“There is little known about this variant at this time, but variants become a concern when they lead to an increase in disease transmission or severity, when they cannot be detected by current diagnostic tests, or when they reduce the effectiveness of treatments or vaccines,” the tribe said.

Southern Ute Tribe rolls out COVID-19 vaccine
The Southern Ute Tribe hosted three COVID-19 vaccination events on the reservation in February. More than 1,100 people were vaccinated against the coronavirus, the council reported.

“We would like to thank the tribal staff and volunteers for the impressive planning and execution throughout the tribal testing events,” the tribal council said in a statement on February 11.

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