WASHINGTON, Dec 30, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The US state of Colorado has recorded
what is reportedly America’s first case of the particularly infectious
coronavirus variant that emerged recently in Britain, the governor said
Tuesday.
“Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant
B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK,” state governor Jared Polis
tweeted.
He attached an official statement from his office and state health
officials that said the individual is a “male in his 20s who is currently in
isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history.”
The individual had no close contacts, the statement said, but the
situation will continue to be monitored “very closely” and authorities are
working to identify other potential cases through contact tracing.
The Washington Post reported that the Colorado case is the first known
infection of the variant virus to be recorded in the United States. The first
two variant cases on the North American continent were discovered in Canada
over the weekend.
Fears have been raised by the new strain of Covid-19, which experts say is
potentially more transmissible.
More than 3,000 cases of the variant have already been reported in the UK
and dozens of countries in Europe and around the world, according to the EU
health agency ECDC.
In South Africa, more than 300 cases of another variant have been
recorded. Three cases of that strain variant have been confirmed in Europe —
two in the UK and one in Finland — but all three have been connected to
people returning from South Africa.