The South African variant of the coronavirus has been detected in a person hospitalized in New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday.
Cuomo stressed during a press conference in Albany that the afflicted individual is not a New Yorker, and that there is no indication that tensions are circulating in the Empire State.
“The patient was transferred directly from Connecticut to a New York City hospital,” Cuomo said. “It was not a New York resident. it was a person in Connecticut who was transferred to a hospital in New York for a procedure.
“We have no evidence of distribution in New York State so far.”
Cuomo did not provide any details about the patient or their condition and did not specify in which hospital they are.
As the governor noted, experts are monitoring the mutation amid fears it is more lethal and resistant to vaccines.
“The South African variant is the variant that they keep a close eye on,” he said. “The South African variant is concerned about how lethal it is and how it relates to the vaccine.”
Last month, a highly contagious strain of the virus from the UK was detected in New York, and a study released Sunday identified seven new mutations across the US, at least one of which is circulating in the northeast.