MASSACHUSETTS – Massachusetts has reported more cases of the new P.1 variant of COVID-19 than any other state in the country, and researchers said most of the cases stemmed from a group on Cape Cod this past weekend.
A report by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard found 54 such cases in Massachusetts, saying 43 of them came from the Cape group. The variant, which originated in Brazil, is spreading faster, but researchers do not yet know if it is more deadly and if it could re-infect people who have already had the virus.
William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told the Boston Globe that there have been no new cases since the report was released, but he expects more to be detected in the coming days. The report stems from data collected when fewer Massachusetts residents received coronavirus vaccines.
The detection is of particular concern on Cape Cod, where the state considered about half of the communities to be at ‘high risk’ for coronavirus transmission.