Fast-Spreading COVID-19 Variant Confirmed In Washington State yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The B.1.1.7 variant was discovered in two cases in Snohomish County and one in Pierce County. Health officials said there are likely more cases yet to be identified.
Posted: January 23, 2021 1060
The COVID-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom has been found in testing samples from Snohomish County.
That’s according to a Saturday announcement from the Washington State Department of Health along with the Snohomish Health District and the UW Medicine Virology Lab.
The UW Medicine Virology Lab detected two cases of the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7 or SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 in specimens collected from two Snohomish County residents. The lab screened 1,035 samples between Dec. 25, 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021 to detect mutations associated with B.1.1.7, first identified in the UK. The lab confirmed the variant by whole viral genome sequencing.
SEATTLE — Three COVID-19 infections diagnosed in Washington in October were caused by a virus with a mutation that might boost the respiratory bug’s ability to dodge immune defenses.
The mutation, called E484K, is also present in two of the worrisome new viral variants spreading around the globe those that originated in South Africa and Brazil.