Genomic sequencing can detect and track virus variants, but the United States is sequencing relatively few coronavirus test samples. Lab technicians at Duke University prepared samples for sequencing earlier this month.Credit.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times
As Americans anxiously watch the spread of coronavirus variants that were first identified in Britain and South Africa, scientists are finding a number of new variants that seem to have originated in the United States and many of them may pose the same kind of extra-contagious threat.
In a study posted on Sunday, a team of researchers reported seven growing lineages of the coronavirus, spotted in states across the country. All have gained a mutation at the exact same spot in their genes.