Health Secretary Dr Rachel Levine said a person from Dauphin County tested positive after a well-known international exhibition. This variant is the same one that was first discovered in England in December.
Scientists in the UK have said there is no evidence that they cause more serious diseases, but that they can spread more easily.
The individual presented with mild symptoms, which have since resolved as they complete isolation at home, officials reported.
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“Pennsylvania has prepared for this variant by working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has sent 10 to 35 fortnightly random samples to the CDC since November to study sequencing and detect possible cases of this new COVID. 19 variant, ”Levine said. “Public health experts are in the early stages of working to better understand this new variant, how it spreads and how it affects people who are infected with it.”
To date, there have been 609,905 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state and 16,914 Pennsylvanians have died from the virus.
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