Coronavirus variant first seen in South Africa identified in South Carolina

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A highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa has infected two people in South Carolina with no travel history, state officials announced Thursday. These are the first cases in the United States involving the B. 1.351 variant, and the patients’ lack of travel or a connection to one another suggests that the variant is spreading in the community following an undetected introduction.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control did not release the names of the people infected, stating only that they are adults, “one from the Lowcountry and one from the Pee Dee region.”

The B. 1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa in December and containing mutations that appear to enhance transmission, is considered by scientists to be even more worrisome than the more widely publicized B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the United Kingdom. The latter has been detected in more than two dozen U.S. states. View the post here, provided free to view by The Washington Post..