Colorado officials suspect they found a second case of UK coronavirus variant

Colorado officials suspect they found a second case of UK coronavirus variant

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The news comes a day after the first known case of the variant in the United States was announced in Elbert County, Colorado.

Both the confirmed case and the suspicion involve men who work at the Good Samaritan Society’s assisted living institution in Simla, about 72 kilometers northeast of Colorado Springs, County Health Director Dwayne Smith told CNN.

Nor are they residents of Elbert County, and they are isolating themselves outside the county, Smith said. There is “no indication at this point” that this event went beyond the facilities and reached the wider community, he said.

The first patient had no known travel history, Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on Tuesday. In part because of this, there is a good chance that the variant is spreading within the community, William Haseltine, chairman of the global health study group ACCESS Health International, told CNN on Wednesday.

The variant appeared in the UK in September, and US health officials have said in the past few days, as it has become prevalent in the United Kingdom, which is probably already in the United States.

The state health department is in communication with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the two cases. Smith did not know when the variant could be checked or discarded definitively in the second person, he said. He was unable to comment on the men’s travel history and said the state health department notified the county of the two men on Tuesday afternoon.

The “two individuals were working on the facility in non-clinical roles” and “were working on the facility due to the lack of staff from a previous Covid-19 outbreak at the facility, so they were not regular employees,” said Smith. “The state health department has deployed a rapid response team at the assisted living facility in Simla to test residents and staff.”

CNN sought comments from the Good Samaritan Society.

The Good Samaritan Society has had an outbreak of Covid-19 in the past two and a half weeks, and at least two people – a 93-year-old man and an 88-year-old woman – have died, Smith said. A third death is being investigated, he said. The facility is home to approximately 25 residents.

Scientists who advise the UK government estimate that the variant may be up to 70% more effective in spreading than others. Scientists were “confident” that the new variant is “spreading faster than other virus variants,” said Peter Horby, chairman of the UK’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group, last week.

Health officials around the world have said that the UK variant, although believed to be more easily spread, does not appear to be more deadly than the previously identified Covid-19 strains. Many countries have banned flights from the UK and the CDC recently announced that passengers from London to the United States will need a negative coronavirus test in the previous 72 hours.

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