health officials in California say a patient in California has contracted a mutated new coronavirus. The new coronavirus variant was first discovered in the United Kingdom and is likely to lead to more cases in the United States.
California is the second U.S. state to discover a variant of the new coronavirus. A case of variant neo-coronavirus pneumonia was first identified in Colorado earlier this week.
As was the case with the Colorado case, the California Department of Public Health said the state’s infected person also has no known travel history.
California Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly called the latest finding “concerning” and stressed the importance of existing methods to prevent the spread of coronavirus, such as wearing masks, maintaining social distance, staying home and avoiding travel.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said, “It does appear that this particular mutation makes it easier to spread the virus from person to person.”
In an online discussion with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday (Dec. 30), Fauci said the mutation was normal and that he was “not surprised” to find more cases of the new coronary pneumonia mutation in the United States.
Fauci also said the mutated virus is not believed to cause more severe disease than the previous form of the virus, so the vaccine that has been distributed should be equally effective against it.
The U.S. has begun vaccinating front-line health care workers and high-risk groups, including those living in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. Both of the vaccines they are using have emergency use authorizations.
In the next few months, the vaccine will be rolled out to other groups.
If the vaccinations are completed as planned in May, June and July of next year, Fauci said, then by early fall there will be “enough desirable herd immunity so that schools, theaters, sporting events and restaurants can all actually return to basic normalcy.”
According to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, more than 342,000 people have died from NCCP in the United States, including more than 3,700 deaths on Wednesday.
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