Two cases of highly contagious UK variant of coronavirus detected in Suffolk County

Two cases of the British variant of the coronavirus have been identified in Suffolk County, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.

The Suffolk cases were among four new cases identified by the state lab. The other two have been identified in Saratoga County and Warren County. The first case of the British strain in New York was identified earlier this month in Saratoga County.

These newly identified cases bring the total number of known cases of the British variant in New York to 22. Two of those known cases had previously been identified in Nassau County.

The British strain of the virus is a more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Known as B.1.1.7, the variant emerged last month, and the variant’s rapid transmissibility alarmed health officials in the UK and prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to implement more new national lockdowns. The rise of the virus has since strained UK hospitals

U.S. public health officials are monitoring the spread of the UK variant of the coronavirus, which they say is 50% more contagious.

The CDC said last week that the UK variant is expected to become the predominant strain of the virus in the United States in March.

“Right now we’re in a race between how quickly we distribute the vaccine and how quickly the infection is spreading,” Cuomo said yesterday afternoon at a media briefing.

“The good news – the infection rate is a function of people’s behavior and right now it’s going down, which means New Yorkers are acting responsibly,” he said.

“The bad news – not only does the federal vaccine supply not match our ability to administer it, but we continue to see new cases of the British strain, which is much more transmissible,” Cuomo said.

The UK variant is not believed to cause any more serious illness than the virus that has swept the world since it was first detected in China in December 2019. It has since infected nearly 97 million people worldwide and caused more than 2 million of deaths, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, which leads the world in both infections and deaths, the virus has infected 24,135,690 people and killed 400,306 people, according to the CDC.

The state’s Wadsworth lab is continually testing other strains of the COVID-19 virus and so far no other variants outside of the British strain have been found in New York City, Cuomo said yesterday.

Statewide, the test positivity rate fell to 6.8% on Monday. The virus is spreading more slowly in New York, but the number of new cases per 100,000 population – 76.5 – is still at a dangerous level.

Currently, only South Carolina (97 per 100,000), Arizona (92.8 per 100,000) and California (92.3 per 100,000) have more severe outbreaks than New York. Nationally, the number of new cases is 60 per 100,000.

In Suffolk, new cases are 110.5 per 100,000. In Nassau, new cases are 99.7 per 100,000.

As of Monday, 1,224 new cases were reported in Suffolk and 1,096 in Nassau. The Long Island area’s test positivity rate was 7.6% on Monday. It was 7.9% in Suffolk.