Newly identified strain of COVID may be most contagious yet

Scientists at the University of Southern Illinois have identified a third U.S. variant of the virus responsible for COVID-19 – and it is perhaps the most contagious strain to date, the researchers said Thursday.

The local mutation, dubbed 20C-US, is believed to be responsible for up to 50% of all cases in the United States – hitting the Midwest hardest, researchers said in a press release.

“It’s here. We found it,” said Keith Gagnon, associate professor of biochemistry at SIU Carbondale. “It’s definitely grown in place and widespread.”

Gagnon said he and his team traced the strain to Texas, where it first appeared in May.

The mutation has a strong ability to process viral proteins with high “RNA genome integrity,” the researchers said – making it terribly efficient at spreading.

“It may be more easily transmitted than other variants, and its impact on vaccines is uncertain,” the press release said.

The findings come a day after scientists at Ohio State University said they discovered a different strain of the COVID-19 virus – which carries a mutation similar to the British strain.

The results of the 20C-US study were published Wednesday in the online journal bioRxiv.org.

“We anticipate that 20C-US may already be the most dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States,” the article states.

“The ongoing evolution of 20C-US, as well as other dominant variants specific to an emerging region in the world, should continue to be monitored.

Fortunately, the variant of the virus likely did not spread significantly beyond U.S. borders, according to the report.