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The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced on Sunday that the state had seen its first case of the COVID-19 variant first discovered in the UK.
The person who has tested positive for this COVID variant is a Boston woman in her 20s, officials said.
“The individual developed symptoms in early January and tested positive for COVID-19,” according to DPH. “A genetic sample was sent to an out-of-state laboratory as part of the surveillance process established by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to identify variants of COVID-19 . The national public health laboratory was informed of the results last night.
The woman had traveled to the UK and fell ill the day after she returned. She had tested negative before leaving the UK.
“The individual was interviewed by contact tracers at the time the initial positive result was received, and close contacts were identified,” officials said. “She is being questioned again by public health officials now that the variant has been identified as the cause of the disease.”
Surveillance testing for variant B.1.1.7 is underway at the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory in collaboration with clinical diagnostic laboratories and academic partners. The surveillance consists of genomic sequencing on portions of samples positive for COVID-19.
As of Sunday, 88 cases were reported in 14 states in the United States.
“Given the increased transmissibility of this variant and the number of states and other countries that have found infected cases, the Department expects the variant to eventually arrive in Massachusetts,” DPH said. “The measures to reduce risks to public health remain the same. People should continue to wear masks or face masks when in public, maintain a social distance of six feet, stay home when you are sick, and get tested if you have symptoms or are identified. like close contact.
Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday said public health officials were taking COVID-19 mutations “very seriously”, including the highly contagious strain that is spreading to 50 countries and becoming the main source of infection in the UK as well as “more threatening” in Brazil and South Africa.
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