Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that at least 52 cases of the new COVID-19 strain have been found in the United States
California had at least 26 cases of the variant first discovered last month in the United Kingdom.
Florida (22 cases), Colorado (two), Georgia (one) and New York (one) were other states where the new strain was found on CNN.
Although the new variant appears to be more contagious than the new coronavirus, there is no evidence that it is more deadly. There is also no evidence that the strain can elude the effects of vaccines or treatments.
The CDC said the numbers indicate only infections found by analyzing positive samples and do not represent the total number of cases circulating in the country. Also, the agency’s statistics may not immediately match those of the state and local health departments.
There may be several cases of the variant in the US, according to experts, who criticized the country for not doing several genetic sequencing of virus samples to monitor mutations.
A CDC official told CNN that the agency intends to double the number of samples it sequences in the next two weeks, targeting 6,500 per week.
“It’s important that we monitor the virus and be able to capture these trends that have implications for public health and clinical medicine,” Gregory Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, told CNN on Sunday.
December 19, in Florida, was the time when the oldest known US sample of the new variant was found, according to the GISAID genomic database. However, collection data are not available for all samples.
Because coronaviruses are constantly moving, doctors and scientists are concerned that the virus may acquire changes that make it less vulnerable to vaccines or treatments.
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