A 23-year-old man from Florida came out of isolation on Saturday after being the first person in the state to test positive for a new, more contagious strain of COVID-19, health officials said.
The presence of the new strain in Martin County was discovered on Thursday through a random sample of COVID-19 tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said it is now working with the Florida Department of Health to examine more cases in the area and determine the extent of the spread of the new strain.
It was not clear when the man tested positive, but Martin County health worker Carol Ann Vitani described the patient on Saturday as “very cooperative” in following the COVID-19 protocols. The person was asymptomatic and had not traveled out of the state recently.
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