California Governor Gavin Newsom said a new variant of COVID-19 that health experts believe to be highly contagious was confirmed on Wednesday in a patient in Southern California.
Newsom confirmed the patient’s diagnosis during a conversation on Facebook Live with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The governor said during a news conference on Wednesday that the Southern California region currently has a 0 percent ICU capacity.
“About an hour ago, we were told that this new variant, this new strain – which we obviously identified in the UK, some other parts of the globe, identified yesterday in Colorado – was identified here in the state of California, in southern California” , Newsom told Fauci.
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“I’m not surprised that you have a case, and probably more cases, in California. And we will probably see reports from other states,” said Fauci, pointing to the high levels of travel reported in the past few days in relation to winter holidays. “I don’t think Californians should think this is a strange thing. This is expected.”
San Diego County supervisor Nathan Fletcher said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that the patient Newsom referred to was identified in San Diego County.
“I can confirm that the case is in fact in a patient in San Diego County,” said Fletcher. The patient, a 30-year-old man who did not have a recent travel history, started showing symptoms of COVID-19 on Sunday and was tested for the virus on Tuesday.
“Since there is no travel history, we believe this is not an isolated case in San Diego County, and there are probably other cases of that same strain in San Diego County,” said Fletcher.
The new variant began to alarm health experts around the world earlier this month, when it appeared in patients in the UK. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the new variant, known as B.1.1.7, was responsible for about 60 percent of virus cases recently reported in London. The variant has also been identified in patients in Canada and in some European countries.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis confirmed the first American case of the new variant on Tuesday. Polis said the patient, a man in his 20s who has since been identified as a member of the Colorado National Guard, had no recent travel history. A second case is suspected in Colorado, but has not yet been confirmed.
Fauci said researchers in the UK are studying the new variant, but so far they do not believe it is more deadly than the original strain of the virus.
“It is able to bind better to receptors in cells and is therefore better transmitted,” Fauci told Newsom. “There is no indication that it increases virulence – and by virulence, I mean the ability to make you sick or to kill you.”
Fauci said UK researchers so far do not believe that the variant is immune to the COVID-19 vaccines. Two vaccines, one from Pfizer and Moderna, are being distributed in the United States after the Food and Drug Administration approved them for emergency use earlier this month.
The new variant “does not appear to escape the protection afforded by vaccine-induced antibodies,” said Fauci.
Newsweek has contacted the CDC for comment and will update this article with any response.
This story has been updated with additional background and information.