Cedars-Sinai researchers announced Thursday, Feb. 11, that CAL.20C, the variant of the Common Central Virus (COVID-19) first detected in L.A. County last July, has spread to at least 19 states and six countries, with 44 percent of new cases in Southern California now involving the variant and 35 percent across California.
According to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the CAL.20C variant has spread rapidly in recent months, with travelers from California taking it to other states and overseas. It is uncertain whether the variant strain is deadly, or more contagious than the original strain, or whether it is vaccine-resistant. As of Jan. 22, the variant has also been detected in 19 states across the United States, as well as Australia, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
Cedar-Sinai investigators are using advanced technology known as next-generation sequencing to analyze the virus’ genes and track the spread and spread of CAL.20C.
The CAL.20C variant went “off the radar” after it was first discovered, but when it reappeared last October, it spread rapidly across the United States. This variant has been found to involve five mutation sites, three of which involve the so-called spike protein, which is associated with invasion and infection of normal cells. L.A. County has identified eight cases of the British variant of B.1.1.7.
As of Feb. 6, the number of reported cases in L.A. County exceeded 1 million. As of February 11, the number of deaths from the disease in California had reached 45,496, surpassing the previous highest death toll in the nation in New York State (45,312).
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