Health officials in Virginia reported Thursday the state’s first cases of the highly transmissible coronavirus variants that initially emerged in California last summer.
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) said it detected the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants in samples from residents collected between December and February. While the variants have a higher transmission rate, the health department said there is no evidence that they cause more severe disease.
Fourteen cases of the B.1.427 variant and nine cases of the B.1.429 variant have been detected in the state. Variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa have also been identified in Virginia. In total, the VDH has reported 176 cases of coronavirus variants in the state.
“Viruses change all the time, and VDH expects to see new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as disease spreads. As our public health officials closely monitor the emergence of these SARS-CoV-2 variants in our Commonwealth, it is critical that all Virginians comply now with mitigation measures,” the health department said in a statement. “Public health recommendations for stopping the spread of COVID-19 will work for all COVID-19 variants.”
The coronavirus variants from California are estimated to be about 20% more transmissible than the original strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Shen Wu Tan can be reached at stan@washingtontimes.com.
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