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New Jersey recorded the first known death in the United States from the UK’s coronavirus strain, state officials announced on Wednesday.
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The White House COVID-19 team said separately that the country was identifying cases of the new strain very slowly.
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In early January, the United Kingdom entered a new blockade to decrease transmission and the effects of the new variant.
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New Jersey state health commissioner Judy Persichilli announced on Wednesday that a person had died of a coronavirus variant identified in the United Kingdom, marking the first known death in the United States due to the new strain.
The new variant is more transmissible and has contributed to a huge increase in cases and deaths in the UK.
“It is more important than ever with the variant to continue masking, social distance, staying at home when you are sick,” Persichilli said at the news conference. The authorities added that there are at least six cases of the new strain identified in New Jersey, but that the data is “light”.
Persichilli added that one of these individuals traveled internationally.
Eddy Bresnitz, COVID-19 advisor in New Jersey, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepared tests for variants, and Governor Phil Murphy added that with the new variant identified, New Jersey and the federal government need to do more. rapidly in the distribution of vaccines.
“It is a very complex system that they launched at this point, and we are part of it,” said Bresnitz. Persichilli added that the individual who died from the new COVID-19 strain had significant underlying conditions.
Conference officials added that current vaccines are effective against the variant.
“We operate on the assumption that you are here, and this is confirmation of that,” said Murphy. “And that number is only going to increase.”
In early January, the United Kingdom entered new national blocks to reduce transmission and the effects of the new variant.
Last week, UK health officials said the variant could be more deadly, which could be due to a number of reasons – including viral load and how many additional people it can infect – as reported by Aylin Woodward of Business Insider .
In New York, state officials told reporters on Wednesday that 42 cases of the UK variant were identified.
“We don’t know exactly what’s going on with the new varieties,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters at a news conference. “And the concept of not knowing is very worrying for me.”
The Biden government’s COVID-19 response team said at a meeting on Wednesday that the US is slowly identifying the new variant.
“Believe it or not, we are 43rd in the world in genomic sequencing,” said Jeff Zients, COVID coordinator for the White House, on Wednesday.
White House officials added that in January, 26,308 cases of the UK variant were confirmed in 26 states.
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