A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the U.K. variant of the coronavirus may have arrived sooner and be more widespread in the United States than previously believed.
The CDC examined eight patients from Minnesota who had tested positive for the coronavirus between Dec. 18, 2020, and Jan. 11, 2021, and later identified as having the U.K. variant, also known as SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7.
Six of the patients had traveled in the 14-day period before they either showed COVID-19 symptoms or were tested for the virus. Three had traveled internationally, two to West Africa and one to the Dominican Republic. The other three had traveled to California.
That at least one of the tests examined in the study occurred in mid-December provides evidence that the variant was spreading in the U.S. well before cases of the variant were identified. The first known case of the U.K. variant in America was announced in Colorado on Dec. 30. A day later, California officials announced that state’s first case. As of Tuesday, 1,277 cases of the variant have been identified in the U.S.
Research from Imperial College London shows that the variant is 40% to 70% more transmissible than previous strains of the virus. In late January, the government of the United Kingdom released data suggesting that the variant may also be more deadly than previous strains.
