South African variant of COVID detected in hospital patient in New York

The South African variant of the coronavirus has been detected in a person hospitalized in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday.

Speaking at a press briefing in Albany, Cuomo stressed that the afflicted individual was not a New Yorker and that there was no indication that the strain is circulating in the Empire State.

“The patient was transferred from Connecticut directly to a New York City hospital,” Cuomo said. “He was not a New York resident. it was a person from Connecticut who was transferred to a hospital in New York for surgery.

“We have no evidence of spread in New York State to date.”

Cuomo did not provide any details about the patient or his condition and did not specify which hospital he was in.

As the governor noted, experts are monitoring the mutation, fearing it may be no longer fatal and more resistant to vaccines.

“The South African variant is the variant they are watching more closely,” he said. “The South African variant, they are worried about its death and its connection to the vaccine.”

Last month, a highly contagious strain of the virus from the UK was detected in New York City, and a study released Sunday identified seven new mutations across the United States, at least one of which is circulating in the northeast.