Georgia health officials have confirmed the first case of the British coronavirus variant in an 18-year-old man with no travel history. In a press release sent on Tuesday, officials said the patient was isolating himself at home and contact detection was underway.
The discovery was made during an analysis of a sample sent by a pharmacy in Georgia to a commercial laboratory. It was not yet clear how the patient acquired the variant.
“The rise of this variant in our state should be a wake-up call for all Georgians,” Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the health department, said in the press release. “Even when we start a COVID-19 vaccine, we should not give up and ignore basic preventative measures; wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands regularly.”
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The variant, identified as B.1.1.7, was first discovered in the UK a few weeks ago, and the first state to report a case in the US was Colorado. Since then, New York, California and Florida have reported cases.
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The variant is thought to be much more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain first noticed when the outbreak began. The UK has entered a third national exclusion, citing an increase in new cases presumably driven by the B.1.1.7 variant.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday called the variant a “game changer” and said the country had been trying to catch up since the start of the pandemic. Cuomo said the variant would only make the race more difficult and called for faster vaccinations.
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Across the country, officials have put pressure on health workers to speed up the vaccination process so that states can begin the next phase of distribution. As of Tuesday, the U.S. had distributed more than 17 million doses of vaccines, but only 4.8 million made it into the arms of Americans.