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After 10 months of the pandemic, this is the most worried that I ve been for our state, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said Friday. (Shutterstock)
NORTH CAROLINA A highly contagious variant of COVID-19 is likely already circulating in North Carolina, the state s top public health official said Friday.
The variant, which is no more dangerous than the original virus but is much more easily transmitted from person to person, was first found in the United States Tuesday in Colorado. Officials in the U.K. claimed, without verification, that the new variant is as much as 53 to 70 percent more contagious than the original virus that originated in China, prompting new shutdowns in London. Both vaccines approved for usage in the United States are believed to be effective in protecting against the multiple variants of the coronavirus. Ongoing tests are being conducted in England to determine antibody and vaccine efficacy in protecting against the new variant.