A more contagious strain of coronavirus that has been confirmed in three U.S. states may have been in the country since October, according to a new report.
The researchers say a virus mutation identified in the United States appears to be similar to the B117 variant of the bug – the so-called “British variant” – that may have even originated in America, the Guardian said in a report.
The most easily transmitted strain was identified in patients in California, Colorado and Florida on Friday, the newspaper said.
“It would be no surprise if at least some of the cases were B117,” said researcher Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.
“He’s probably been here for a while at low levels, but you don’t see him until you look,” said Topol.
British officials announced the existence of a variant of the global pandemic on December 14, prompting at least 17 countries to announce the UK’s travel ban.
On Thursday, Florida became the third U.S. state to identify a similar variant – joining California and Colorado, which reported cases earlier this week.
The discovery led scientists at Helix, a California DNA testing company, to review 2 million COVID-19 tests, which determined that a genetic pattern similar to that of the mutated virus had existed in some samples since October, the Guardian said.
Helix is now working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine the extent of the variant’s presence in the country.
“If we see (variant B117), then we can see if it has been introduced in the U.S. once or several times, or if it has undergone an additional mutation,” said Nicole Washington, associate director of research at Helix.
“If all the samples contain it, it’s probably been around for a while,” she said. “But if only one or two samples have it, it may have been introduced recently and we are just beginning to see it spread.”
The scientist said there is also a possibility – although unlikely – that the variant originated in the United States and not in Britain.