The US state of Colorado has recorded what is reportedly America's first case of the particularly infectious coronavirus variant that emerged recently in Britain, the governor said on Tuesday.
"Today we discovered Colorado's first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK," state governor Jared Polis tweeted.
He attached an official statement from his office and state health officials that said the individual is a "male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history."
The individual had no close contacts, the statement said, but the situation will continue to be monitored "very closely" and authorities are working to identify other potential cases through contact tracing.
The Washington Post reported that the Colorado case is the first known infection of the variant virus to be recorded in the United States. The first two variant cases on the North American continent were discovered in Canada over the weekend.
Fears have been raised by the new strain of COVID-19, which experts say is potentially more transmissible.
More than 3,000 cases of the variant have already been reported in the UK and dozens of countries in Europe and around the world, according to the EU health agency ECDC.
In South Africa, more than 300 cases of another variant have been recorded. Three cases of that strain variant have been confirmed in Europe - two in the UK and one in Finland - but all three have been connected to people returning from South Africa.
'High' risk
The Stockholm-based The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a report on Tuesday that "although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe," the fact that they would spread more easily means that the impact on "hospitalisations and deaths is assessed as high."
Just like previously circulating virus variants, this was particularly true for "those in older age groups or with co-morbidities," the agency added.
The report specifically addressed the two new variants discovered in the UK and in South Africa, both of which show signs of "increased transmissibility."
The health agency recommended countries to continue advising citizens "of the need for non-pharmaceutical interventions in accordance with their local epidemiological situation" with a particular focus on "non-essential travel and social activities."
The ECDC also recommended a number of options for "delaying the introduction and further spread of a new variant of concern," including targeted sequencing of community cases to "detect early and monitor the incidence of the variant."
In addition it recommended increased "follow-up and testing" of people linked to areas with higher numbers of the variant and also remind people coming from such areas of the need to "comply with quarantine" and getting tested.
