New York, United States.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday confirmed the presence of the new British strain of the coronavirus in the region, which was found in a resident of Saratoga County, in the central part of the state.
“The Wadsworth lab has confirmed the first case of the UK variant (B.1.1.7) of the virus that causes covid,” Cuomo announced on the social network Twitter.
“A person from Saratoga County, New York, has tested positive for this strain,” added the governor, noting, however, that the person has not traveled recently.
It is the fourth US state to detect the presence of the species, considered the most contagious, after California, Florida and Colorado.
Although it is more easily transmitted, experts have pointed out that it does not appear more virulent and it is believed that the vaccine developed by pharmaceutical companies will also be effective against this variant.
“It doesn’t make people sicker or cause more deaths,” US chief epidemiologist Anthony Fauci told the media on Sunday.
“It doesn’t seem to escape the protection you would have against the antibodies that induce the vaccines we currently use,” added Fauci, referring to the information they have received from scientists in the UK saying that US experts have yet to confirm these.
According to the independent census of Johns Hopkins University, the United States remains the country most affected by the pandemic, with 20.7 million confirmed cases and more than 352,000 deaths.