Residents in Los Angeles, California, are lining up for cars to be tested for the virus after Christmas. (29 December 2020)
health officials in the U.S. state of California say a patient in the state has been infected with a new variant of the COVID-19 virus. The strain was first detected in Britain and is likely to see more cases in the United States.
California is the second STATE in the United States to find a variant of the virus. Earlier this week, a COVID-19 mutation was first detected in Colorado.
As with the Colorado case, the California Department of Public Health says the people infected in the state also have no known travel history.
Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of health and Human Services, called the latest findings “worrying” and stressed the importance of existing ways to prevent the spread of the virus, such as wearing masks, keeping a social distance, staying at home and avoiding travel.
“It does seem that this particular mutation makes it easier for the virus to pass from person to person,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert.
In an online discussion with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, Fauci said the virus mutation was normal and that he was “not surprised” to find more cases of the pneumonia mutation in the United States.
Fauci also said the mutant virus is not believed to cause more severe illness than previous forms of the virus, so vaccines already distributed should be equally effective against it.
The United States 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 used were licensed for emergency use.
The vaccine will be rolled out to other groups in the coming months.
If the vaccinations are completed as planned in May, June and July, fauci said, by early fall there will be “ideal enough herd immunity so that schools, theaters, sports events and restaurants can really get back to more or less normal.”
Pneumonia has killed more than 342,000 people in the United States, including more than 3,700 on Wednesday, according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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