Health officials say a woman in her 50s who lives in Philadelphia and Bucks County has been diagnosed with the UK variant.
The laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine was invited by city health officials to test this case.
She fell ill in late December. She was briefly hospitalized and is now recovering. She had contact with someone who was infected after traveling to England.
“I would have been surprised if it hadn’t been in Philadelphia and now we know it is, or at least nearby,” said Frederic Bushman, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
He and his team detected the case. It is the first of the B.1.1.7 variant, the so-called United Kingdom variant, in southeastern Pennsylvania.
“The variant is spreading nationally and globally,” said Bushman.
In fact, a new CDC report warns that it may take over as a predominant variant until March, unless further mitigation measures are taken.
Initial research shows that it can spread faster, which would worsen the pandemic that is already growing.
Still, Bushman says it is no cause for alarm. Instead, it is a reminder to do everything we can to slow the spread of the virus.
“What works is wearing a mask, social distance, washing your hands, avoiding crowds, people should follow routine care and it works against this strain, it works against other strains,” he said.
Included in this: receiving the vaccine when it is available.
The researchers say the vaccine will still work against these variants.
But Bushman says this is something they will continue to monitor with this and other variants of the virus.
This is the second case of the variant found in Pennsylvania. In the first case, a patient from Dauphin County had mild symptoms.
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