A newly identified strain of the coronavirus found in Southern California may contribute the drastic peak in cases in the region, according to new research released Monday. The study, which was not reviewed by the peer, found that more than a third of recent COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles were infected with the strain, according to a release summarizing the findings. .
The strain, known as CAL.20C, contains five types of recurrent mutations. According to the release, it is not yet clear if it is more deadly than other forms of the virus.
CAL.20C was nearly unstable in October – but by December it was 36% of the virus samples from Cedars-Sinai patients and 24% of all samples from Southern California. Tensions have also been high in Northern California, New York, Washington, DC and even Oceania, the release said.
‘The double-digit prevalence of the CAL.20C strain in November and December was striking, as it was first observed in July 2020 in just one of 1,230 virus samples in Los Angeles County and only detected again in Southern California in October is “said Jasmine Plummer, a research scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, and a co-author of the study.
CAL.20C differs from the rapidly spreading variant of the virus first identified in the United Kingdom, known as B.1.1.7. The strain, which is 50% more contagious than other forms of the virus, has been identified in at least 20 states, according to David Begnaud, CBS News.
The announcement of CAL.20C comes after Los Angeles County emerged as a global hotspot. In the country, one person dies from the virus every six minutes, and there is now such a backlog of bodies air quality rules was loosened to allow for more cremations.
More than 1 million people in the country have been diagnosed with the virus, and nearly 14,000 have died – more than any other country in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.