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(Photo by Andreas Rentz / 2020 Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Researchers have identified a new COVID-19 variant developing in Arizona, and the effects of E484K or the Eek variant are still under investigation.
“I don’t think we need to go astray,” said Dr. David Engelthaler, co-director of the pathogen genomics division at TGen North. KTAR News 92.3 FM Gaydos and Chad Tuesday.
“This is clearly a variant with significant changes,” he added. “However, that’s what we’re doing now. We follow every variation, all of these mutations, like we’ve never done before. “
Arizona State University researchers detailed their findings so far on the variant thanks to a study published in a scientific journal on Sunday. They wrote that this new variant of interest “is being established in Arizona and starting to cross state borders into New Mexico and Texas.”
“We believe there is a possibility of negative effects from this variant,” Engelthaler said. “We don’t know it will spread any faster. At this point, we don’t know if this is going to become important at all in Arizona. “
He added that he was being watched week by week to see if he was becoming more prevalent in the state.
The South African, Brazilian and British variants of COVID-19 have already been discovered in Arizona.
Engelthaler pointed out that getting people vaccinated is the best way to prevent the development of other variants.
“The virus is essentially evolving in front of our eyes,” he said. “What’s going on is you’ve kind of got this race for the survival of the fittest varieties, and these are the ones we call variants.”
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