Man With First Confirmed U.S. Case of Fast-Spreading U.K. COVID-19 Strain Has No Travel History

DENVER — A Colorado National Guard member has the first reported U.S. case of a new and seemingly more contagious variant of the coronavirus that has set off alarm in Britain, while a second case is suspected in another Guard member, health officials said Wednesday. The two were sent on Dec. 23 to work at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak of the virus in a small town outside Denver, said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state’s epidemiologist. A state laboratory detected the cases after it began looking for signs of the variant after its spread was announced in England earlier this month, she said. Staff and residents at the nursing home who have tested positive for the coronavirus are having their samples screened for signs of the variant, and so far no evidence of it has been found, Herlihy said. The confirmed case is in a Colorado man in his 20s who hadn’t been traveling and has mild symptoms, officials said. He’s isolating at his home near Denver, and the person with the suspected case is isolating in a hotel on Colorado’s Eastern Plains, Herlihy said. The cases have triggered a host of questions about how the variant arrived in the U.S. and added urgency to the nation’s vaccination drive. The new, mutated version was first identified in Britain, where infections are soaring and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed the first peak seen last spring. The variant has also been found in several other countries. “...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 overnight wire Source Type: news