COVID-19: US detects second case of UK mutant, authorities concerned about spread

American health officials, on December 30, reported a new case of mutant coronavirus in country’s most populated state California. The new infection, which came within 24 hours of the country reporting its initial case has now left experts concerned about the scale and speed of its spread as well the peril it causes, The “more lethal and transmissible” SarS CoV- 2 variant which was first reported in Brittan has spread to other nations including Spain, India as well as the trans-Atlantic nation of Canada.

Speaking at an online conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, California’s Governor Gavin Newsrom revealed that that the second case was reported on Wednesday, December 30, but he did not provide further details about the patient. Following the detection, several states including California, Massachusetts and Delaware, are analyzing suspicious virus samples for the variant in a bid to curb it’s further spread. In addendum, this has also increased pressure on authorities to step up mass inoculation.

Meanwhile, Dr Eric Topol, the head of Scripps Research Translational Institute noted that the virus was becoming “more fit” with each passing day. Describing one probable reason behind slow detection of new cases infected with a mutant virus, he reckoned that it was because the US did far less genetic sequencing of virus samples to discover variants than other developed nations usually did.  

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First case in Colorado

Marking the first case of COVID-19 variant in the United States, a man in the western state of Colorado tested positive on December 29 (local time). The individual had no close contacts and no travel history but the overall situation was being “monitored very closely”. The new variant of the novel coronavirus has been flagged for spreading rapidly across the UK. Even though it is a well-known fact that viruses mutate all the time and some of them even die out, it is a very rare occasion when the new strains trigger dramatic changes. However, with over 1,000 cases of the variant discovered in the UK, scientists are puzzled to determine if the variant, reportedly named as VUI-202012/01 falls into which category or if it represents an increased health risk especially when some nations began administering the COVID-19 vaccines among people. 

Cred: AP

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