COVID-19 in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia-area woman diagnosed with UK variant of COVID-19

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPVI) – A potentially more contagious mutation of the coronavirus has now been reported in our region.

Health officials said a woman in her 50s, who lives in both Philadelphia and Bucks County, had the British variant.

City health officials have asked the lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine to test the case.

She fell ill at the end of December. She was briefly hospitalized and is now recovering. She had contact with an infected person after traveling to England.

“I would have been surprised if it wasn’t actually in Philadelphia and now we know it is, or at least nearby,” said Frederic Bushman, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

He and his team detected the case. It is the first of the B.1.1.7 variant, the so-called British variant, in southeastern Pennsylvania.

“The variant has spread nationally and globally,” Bushman said.

In fact, a new report from the CDC warns that it could become the predominant variant by March unless further mitigation measures are taken.

Early research shows it could spread faster, which would make the already spiraling pandemic worse.

Yet Bushman says this is no cause for alarm. Rather, it is a reminder to do everything possible to slow the spread of the virus.

“What works is wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands, avoiding crowds, people should follow routine precautions and it works against this strain, works against other strains,” he said. he declared.

Included in this: get the vaccine when it is available.

The researchers say the vaccine will always work against these variants.

But Bushman says it’s something they’ll continue to watch out for with this and other variants of the virus.

This is the second case of the variant found in Pennsylvania. In the first case, a patient from Dauphin County presented with mild symptoms.