According to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the first known U.S. case of a coronavirus variant from Brazil was confirmed Monday. COVID-19 Brazil P.1 was detected in a person from the Twin Cities area who recently traveled to Brazil, reports CBS Minnesota.
The person was ill during the first week of January and was tested. coronavirus on January 9th.
The case was discovered by MDH through a random audit that the agency conducts weekly. Fifty samples were collected from test partners, including the clinical laboratories of the University of Minnesota and Infinity Biologix Laboratory in Oakdale.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm stressed the importance of the testing program and also why it is important to limit the spread of COVID-19.
“The fewer people get COVID-19, the less opportunities the virus has to develop,” Malcolm said in a statement. The good news is that we can slow down the spread of this variant and all COVID-19 variants by using the proven prevention methods to wear masks, keep social distance, stay home when you are sick and to test where necessary. “
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Brazilian variant was ‘first identified in four Brazilian travelers tested during a routine search at Haneda Airport outside Tokyo, Japan.’
An additional variant, known as the B 1.1.7 variant or the British variant, has also been detected in several countries, including the USA and Canada. A South African variant known as 1,351 has yet to be found in the US
The US marked a bad milestone earlier this week when COVID-19 cases exceed 25 million, according to data reported by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, 99 million cases have been reported.
Nearly 421,000 people in the U.S. died from COVID-19, while more than 2.1 million people worldwide died from COVID-19.