UK strain of contagious coronavirus found in the US

Andrew Cuomo Governor of New York said the first case of a mutant strain of coronavirus is reported in his state. The governor also raised concern about the hospital capacity as the mutant virus spread at 50% faster than the older coronavirus.

Speaking about the first case of mutant strain found in the USA Cuomo said that a 60-year-old man living in a town north of Albany has been detected with it. The man has no recent travel history suggesting community transmission has taken place.

New York has carried out 5,000 COVID-19 tests to find out the cases of the new strain and so far only one case is found. Cuomo said that this new strain could be a “game-changer” as it can increase the pressure on the hospitals and the medical staff and can force regions to go into lockdown.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that the vaccines do not appear to be effective on the mutated strain of the virus. However, the public health officials are monitoring the strain which is named ‘B.1.1.7.’.

He said, “We’re following this extremely carefully……….We have isolates from the UK. We’re working on it”.

Fauci explained the mutation of the coronavirus “RNA viruses, they make a living out of mutating, they love to mutate………It’s replicating a lot, and when you replicate, you mutate” he said.

The first case of the mutated coronavirus was found in the UK and 60% of the total cases in the UK are due to this strain of coronavirus.