{"id":276240,"date":"2021-01-20T11:05:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T11:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/new-covid-19-strain-that-is-different-from-uks-highly-contagious-variant-is-found-in-california\/"},"modified":"2021-01-20T11:05:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T11:05:57","slug":"new-covid-19-strain-that-is-different-from-uks-highly-contagious-variant-is-found-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/new-covid-19-strain-that-is-different-from-uks-highly-contagious-variant-is-found-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"New COVID-19 strain that is different from UK’s ‘highly contagious’ variant is found in California\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered a new coronavirus<\/a> variant in California<\/a> as the state continues to struggle with a rising number of cases and deaths.<\/p>\n

The strain was first seen in Denmark but does not appear to be a more infectious one in the European country that was linked to minks and led to 17 million of the animals being culled in November.<\/p>\n

This new variant, known as L452R, dates back to samples as early as May in The Golden State.<\/p>\n

It has been linked to multiple outbreaks in Santa Clara County, including one in a Kaiser Permanante emergency room that sickened more than 90 and led to one death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the new variant is more contagious or just becoming more easily identifiable as laboratories perform genome sequencing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0variant is also different from the highly infectious one first identified the UK that has recently been sweeping the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK’s strain, B 1.1.7., has been identified in 18 states, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of federal and state data.<\/span><\/p>\n

As public health officials caution that this will soon become the dominant strain in the U.S., Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, says the warning should be a ‘clarion call’ for Americans to get vaccinated<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A \"A <\/p>\n

A new coronavirus variant has been identified in California and has been linked to large outbreaks in Santa Clara. Pictured:\u00a0Registered nurse Merri Lynn Anderson (right_ tends to her patient in a COVID-19 unit at S. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California, January 7<\/p>\n

\"Known \"Known <\/p>\n

Known as L452R, it has been linked to large outbreaks in Santa Clara and seen in more than a dozen counties including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Pictured:\u00a0Nurses wearing PPE in a COVID-19 unit at Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital is Los Angeles, January 6<\/p>\n

As of Monday, the new variant has identified in Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Dan Diego, San Francisco and San Luis Obispo counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘This virus continues to mutate and adapt, and we cannot let down our guard,’ said Dr Sara Cody, director\u00a0of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cody did confirm that variant was identified in an outbreak in a Kaiser Permanente emergency room in San Jose that led to more than 90 people and patients infected and death.<\/p>\n

An inflatable Christmas costume may have helped spread the virus.<\/p>\n

The new California variant has three mutations on the spike protein, Dr Charles Chiu, a virologist at UC San Francisco, told The New York Times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was first detected in Denmark in March in California in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chiu said, in December 2020, the new variant was present in 3.8 percent of genome samples that were sequenced. By January, it was in\u00a025.2 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n