Scientists in Los Angeles County have begun examining samples of COVID-19 found in patients to determine if a new, more infectious strain of the virus in the UK has made its way to the west coast of the United States.
The new strain is particularly worrying, given the ease with which it spreads from person to person, although it is unclear whether it is more lethal than the thread that has spread for months.
LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Los Angeles Times in an interview Friday that a public health lab is sequencing genes to test for virus samples.
“When I spoke to the State Department of Public Health, they told me they were looking and I don’t think they saw the new strain,” Ferrer said. “But you know, you have to know what you’re looking for. So I think everyone, right now, who sees such growth, is obviously looking to see, “Do we have that special variant?” “
The comments come as the county sees an increase in cases. More than 13,600 new cases were registered on Thursday alone and 148 people died that day.
“It simply came to our notice then. Everyone I’ve talked to has said that this acceleration exceeds any model and any expectation, so people say “What went wrong?” and I have to think it’s partly the strain that was there, ”Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
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The increase in the number of cases coincided with concerns about a strain of virus that devastated Britain, which has implemented severe restrictions on large areas of the country to try to control its outbreak.
A study by the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the strain is 56% more contagious than the original strain, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week that the strain may already be circulating in the United States