The South African variant of the coronavirus was detected in a person hospitalized in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday.
Speaking during a press briefing in Albany, Cuomo stressed that the affected individual is not a New Yorker and that there is no indication that the strain is circulating in the Empire State.
“The patient was transferred from Connecticut directly to a hospital in New York,” Cuomo said. “He was not a resident of New York. a Connecticut person was transferred to a New York hospital for a procedure.
“We have no evidence of spread in New York State so far.”
Cuomo did not provide any details about the patient or his condition and did not specify which hospital he was in.
As the governor noted, experts are monitoring the mutation amid fears that it could be more deadly and more resistant to vaccines.
“The South African variant is the variant I am following most closely,” he said. “The South African variant, they worry about how lethal it is and how it binds to the vaccine.”
Last month, a highly contagious strain of the virus in the UK was detected in New York, and a study launched on Sunday identified seven new mutations in the US, at least one of which is circulating in the Northeast.