UK variant of coronavirus surfaces in Orange County – Orange County Register

A man from San Clemente took a new and apparently more contagious variant of COVID-19, the first known case of the so-called UK strain in Orange County and probably not the last, public health officials said on Monday, February 8. .

The 21-year-old tested positive for the variant on January 26, wrote Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the OC Health Care Agency and county health officer, on Monday in a memo to the Board of Supervisors.

“Your symptoms have now been resolved,” wrote Chau. “He has no history of international travel. It is not part of a larger outbreak. We are trying to get your close contacts tested to see if they have evidence of infection. “

The California Department of Public Health reported the case to the county health agency over the weekend, Chau said.

State health department officials said on Monday that additional details could not be made public to protect the patient’s privacy.

The variant – known as B.1.1.7 – was first discovered in the UK in September and is spreading rapidly around the world. It is one of the few COVID-19 mutations that scientists are striving to learn more about, including whether they cause more serious illnesses than the original coronavirus strain that started the pandemic.

“Viruses are constantly changing through mutations, and new variants of a virus must occur over time. Sometimes, new variants appear and disappear. Other times, new variants appear and persist, ”wrote Chau.

Since the man contracted the new strain without traveling abroad, there are likely to be other variant UK cases in Orange County that have not yet been identified, said Dr. Matt Zahn, assistant county health officer and medical director of Control of Communicable Diseases from the Public Health Services Division.