The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday that at least 52 cases of the new COVID-19 strain had been found in the US
California had first discovered at least 26 cases of the variant in the United Kingdom last month.
Florida (22 cases), Colorado (two), Georgia (one), and New York (one) were other states where the new strain was found, according to CNN.
Although the new variant appears to be more contagious than the new coronavirus, there is no evidence that it is more deadly. There is also no evidence that the strain can get around the effects of vaccines or treatments.
The CDC said the numbers only point to infections found by analyzing positive samples and do not represent the total number of cases circulating in the country. Also, the agency’s statistics may not immediately match those of the state and local health departments.
According to experts, there could be many more cases of the variant in the US, which have criticized the country for not doing more genetic sequencing of virus samples to check for mutations.
A CDC official told CNN that the agency planned to more than double the number of samples it sequences in the next two weeks, to 6,500 per week.
“It is important that we keep an eye on the virus and that we can pick up on these trends that affect public health and clinical medicine,” said Dr. Gregory Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, against CNN on Sunday.
On December 19, the earliest known American sample of the new variant was found in Florida, according to the genomic database GISAID. However, collection dates are not available for all samples.
Because coronaviruses are constantly mutating, doctors and scientists are concerned about the potential for the virus to develop changes that make it less vulnerable to vaccines or treatments.
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