DENVER (AP) — The new and seemingly more contagious variant of the coronavirus that has set off alarm in Britain has been reported for the first time in the U.S., in a Colorado man who hadn’t been traveling, triggering a host of questions about how it got here and adding urgency to the nation’s vaccination drive.
The patient, who is in his 20s, was recovering in isolation in Elbert County, a mostly rural expanse on the edge of the Denver metropolitan area, officials said Tuesday.
The variant is probably still rare in the U.S., but the lack of travel history in the first case means it is spreading, perhaps seeded by visitors from Britain in November or December, said scientist Trevor Bedford, who studies the spread of COVID-19 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Scientists in Britain have found no evidence that it is more lethal or causes more severe illness, and they believe the vaccines now being dispensed will be effective against it.
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There are TWO individuals....BOTH volunteered/worked at a shelter/safehouse (?) and they are testing
THAT facility right now......so far no other cases. Do not think the shelter was in Elbert county.
