BOSTON (CBS) – A man in his twenties from Worcester County is the second person in Massachusetts to be diagnosed with the COVID-19 variant in the UK, the Department of Public Health confirmed on Wednesday.
The UK variant, also known as B.1.1.7., Is spreading faster than other variants. It is believed to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain, but the CDC says there is no evidence that it is more deadly.
“It can infect more cells in someone’s nose or in someone’s mouth, and because it infects more cells, more viruses are produced,” Dr. Richard Ellison of UMass Memorial Medical Center on WBZ-TV earlier this week.
The first case of this variant in Massachusetts was reported on Sunday, January 17th. A twenty-year-old Boston woman traveled to the UK and felt unwell the day after returning. He had tested negative for COVID before leaving the UK.
There are now at least 122 cases of the variant in the United States, according to the CDC.