for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, global media has been abuzz with news and speculation about a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
The variant, which researchers first identified in the U.K., is called B.1.1.7, though as scientists began to express concern about it, initial U.K. government documents dubbed it VUI – 202012/01, standing for “the first variant under investigation in December 2020.”
Later government documents from December designated it as a “variant of concern,” and referred to it as VOC 202012/01.
B.1.1.7 was
first spotted in the U.K. in September 2020. It began to draw attention from the scientific community and governmental authorities in early December, when the U.K. health secretary, Matt Hancock, suggested that it was spreading fast and likely contributing to the rising number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the South of England.
By Michael Greenwood
January 8, 2021
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Gov. Ned Lamont on Jan. 7 announced that Yale researchers in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) detected the first two cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 in the state. This is the same variant initially discovered in the United Kingdom that is associated with increased transmission.
According to the DPH, the individuals both reside in New Haven County and recently traveled outside Connecticut one to Europe and one to the state of New York. Genetic sequencing of the virus confirmed that the cases were unrelated.
Gov. Ned Lamont on Jan. 7 announced that Yale researchers in collaboration with the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) detected the first two.
Carl Zimmer, The New York Times
Published: 07 Jan 2021 07:28 PM BdST
Updated: 07 Jan 2021 07:28 PM BdST Research scientist Hong Xie holds a box of samples at a genome sequencing lab at the University of Washington in Seattle on April 15, 2020. With no robust system to identify a dangerous new variant of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track its spread, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.