At least 52 cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in the UK have been identified in the United States, according to the CDC on Wednesday.
This includes 26 cases in California, 22 cases in Florida, two cases in Colorado and one case in Georgia and New York.
CDC says this does not represent the total number of cases circulating in the U.S., but those that have been found analyzing positive samples. The agency warns that their numbers, which are expected to be updated on Tuesdays and Thursdays, do not immediately match local and state health departments.
Although the variant appears to spread more easily than Covid-19, there is no evidence that it is more fatal or causes more serious disease, according to CDC.
Experts suspect there may be many more cases in the US and have criticized the country for not doing more genetic sequencing of virus samples to monitor for mutations. On Sunday, a CDC official told CNN that the agency plans to double the number of samples it sequences over the next two weeks, with a goal of 6,500 per week.
The oldest known U.S. sample carrying the current version of the variant was taken on Dec. 19 in Florida, according to the GISAID genomic database. However, collection dates are not available for all samples.