BOSTON (CBS) – A 20-year-old man from Worcester County is the second person in Massachusetts to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in the UK, the Department of Public Health confirmed on Wednesday.
The British variant, also known as B.1.1.7., Is spreading faster than other variants. It is thought to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain, but the CDC says there is no evidence that it is more deadly.
“It can infect more cells in someone’s nose or mouth, and because it infects more cells, more virus is produced,” Dr. Richard Ellison of UMass Memorial Medical Center told WBZ-TV earlier this week.
The first case of this variant in Massachusetts was reported on Sunday, January 17. A 20-year-old woman from Boston traveled to the United Kingdom and felt unwell the day after she returned. She tested negative for COVID before leaving the United Kingdom.
Currently, there are at least 122 cases of the variant in the US, according to the CDC.