Los Angeles County scientists have begun examining samples of COVID-19 found in patients to determine if a new, more infectious strain of Britain’s virus has hit the west coast of the United States.
The new strain is of particular concern, given the ease with which it spreads from person to person, although it is unclear whether it is more lethal than the branch that has been spreading for months.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Friday that a public health lab is sequencing genes to test for virus samples.
“When I spoke to the state Department of Public Health, they indicated that they were looking and did not believe they had seen” the new strain, Ferrer said. “But you know, you have to know what you’re looking for. So I think everyone who, right now, is seeing this kind of overvoltage, is obviously looking, “Do we have this particular variant?”
Observations come as the county sees an increase in cases. More than 13,600 new cases were counted on Thursday alone, and 148 people died that day.
“It simply came to our notice then. Everyone I spoke to said that this acceleration was beyond any model and any expectation, so people say “What broke?” and I have to think that’s partly the tension that was there, ”the Los Angeles mayor said Eric Garcetti
Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, announces he will not join the Biden administration. The governor who stole Christmas and Californian companies fighting Buttigieg top the list for Biden Transportation Secretary: CNN MORE (D) said in an interview with The Times on Wednesday.
The rise in cases has coincided with concerns over a strain of the virus that ravaged the UK, which has implemented severe restrictions in large areas of the country to try to control the outbreak.
A study by the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the strain is 56 per cent more contagious than the original strain and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said this week it may be that the strain is already circulating in the US