A more contagious strain of coronavirus was first detected in Alaska, health officials announced on Tuesday.
In December, a resident of Anchorage was infected with a strain of the virus that was originally detected in the United Kingdom and can spread more easily among people, the state health department said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
The Anchorage resident was recently in a state where the virus variant had already been detected, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. The individual started showing symptoms of the virus on December 17, was tested on December 20 and received positive results on December 22.
After knowing the positive result, the person isolated himself, although a person with whom he lived also fell ill. The two recovered and had no contact with other people, health officials said in the statement.
Public health officials said it was not unexpected to find the virus in Alaska. The new strain spreads more quickly and easily among people, said the state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Joe McLaughlin, in the department’s announcement.
“We are hopeful that the transmission of this particular variant has stopped with these two individuals, but most likely we will detect the variant strain again soon,” said Dr. Anne Zink, chief medical officer in a prepared statement.
So far, 293 cases of the virus variant have been detected across the country in 24 different states, including Washington state, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, only a small fraction of cases across the country are sequenced to find the strain.
Earlier this month, federal CDC officials said the variant of the virus could become the dominant strain of coronavirus circulating in the United States in March.
The strain should not make people sicker, but an increase in the transmission of the virus can mean more people infected at once. This can overwhelm health systems and lead to more deaths, according to the CDC.
The state of Alaska has been sequencing the COVID-19 cases since March, which is a way to look for the new variants. The state virology laboratory in Fairbanks found the variant strain from the United Kingdom, which was then confirmed by the University of Alaska’s Fairbanks laboratory, before the state health department notified the CDC of its discovery on Monday.
Health officials continued to emphasize that to prevent further spread of COVID-19, including new strains, practices such as standing 6 feet or more from others, using a face cover, washing hands, avoiding meetings, maintaining small social bubbles and isolating when experiencing symptoms are critical.