The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that at least 52 cases of the new COVID-19 strain have been found in the U.S.
In California, there are at least 26 cases of the variant first discovered in the UK last month.
Florida (22 cases), Colorado (two), Georgia (one) and New York (one) were other states in which the new tribe was found, according to CNN.
Although the new variant looks more contagious than the new coronavirus, there is no evidence that it is more deadly. There is also no evidence that the strain can evade the effects of vaccines or treatments.
The CDC said the numbers only indicate infections found by analyzing positive samples and do not represent the total number of cases spread across the country. The agency’s statistics may also not be immediately consistent with those of state and local health departments.
According to experts, there may be many more cases of the variant in the US because they have criticized the country for not doing more genetic sequencing of virus samples to monitor mutations.
A CDC official told CNN the agency plans to more than double the number of samples it sequences over the next two weeks, with a target of 6,500 per week.
“It is important that we monitor the virus and that we can detect these trends that have implications for public health and clinical medicine,” he said. Gregory Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, told CNN on Sunday.
According to the GISAID genomic database, the earliest known American sample of the new variant was found on December 19 in Florida. However, collection dates are not available for all samples.
Because coronaviruses are constantly mutating, doctors and scientists are concerned about the possibility that the virus could cause changes that make it less vulnerable to vaccines or treatments.
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