Health officials say a woman in her fifties living in Philadelphia and Bucks County was found to have the British variant.
City health officials asked the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine lab to prove the case.
She fell ill in late December. She was hospitalized briefly and is now recovering. He had contact with someone who became infected after traveling to England.
“I would have been surprised if it wasn’t for Philadelphia and now we know it is, or at least close by,” said Frederic Bushman, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
He and his team detected the case. It is the first of variant B.1.1.7, the so-called variant of the United Kingdom, in southeastern Pennsylvania.
“The variant has spread nationally and globally,” Bushman said.
In fact, a new CDC report warns that March could take it as a predominant variant unless new mitigation measures are taken.
Early research shows that it can spread more quickly, which would worsen the already spiraling pandemic.
Still, Bushman says it’s no cause for alarm. Rather, it is a reminder to do everything possible to curb the spread of the virus.
“What works is wearing masks, social distance, washing hands, avoiding crowds, people should maintain routine precautions and that works against that strain, it works against other varieties,” he said.
Included in this: get the vaccine when available.
Researchers say the vaccine will still work against these variants.
But Bushman says this is something they will continue to control with this and other variants of the virus.
This is the second case of the variant found in Pennsylvania. In the first case, a patient in Dauphin County experienced mild symptoms.
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