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Newly identified strain of coronavirus widespread in southern California could help the drastic point in cases in the region, according to a new study released Monday. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that more than a third of recent COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles were infected with the strain, according to a statement summarizing his results.
The strain, known as CAL.20C, includes five types of recurrent mutations. The statement said it is not yet clear whether it is more deadly than other forms of the virus.
CAL.20C was almost non-existent in October – but as of December it made up 36% of virus samples from patients at Cedars-Sinai and 24% of all samples from Southern California, according to the release. The strain has also been detected in northern California, New York, Washington, DC and even Oceania, the statement said.
“The double-digit prevalence of the CAL.20C strain in November and December was striking given that it was first observed in July 2020 in just one of 1,230 virus samples in Los Angeles County and that ‘it was not detected again in Southern California until October,’ said Jasmine Plummer, research scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics and co-author of the study.
CAL.20C is distinct from the rapidly spreading variant of the virus first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7. This strain, 50% more contagious than other forms of the virus, was identified in at least 20 states, according to David Begnaud of CBS News.
CAL.20C’s announcement comes as Los Angeles County has emerged as a global viral hotspot. One person dies from the virus every six minutes in the county, and there is now such a backlog of bodies that air quality rules were relaxed to allow for more cremations.
More than a million people in the county have been diagnosed with the virus and nearly 14,000 have died – more than any other county in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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