Another coronavirus variant has emerged in the United States, a so-called “double mutant” strain detected for the first time in California, news outlets reported.
The San Fransisco Chronicle reported that one case of the emerging strain, which originated in India, was confirmed in the Bay Area by the Stanford Clinical Virology Lab through genomic sequencing. Lab director Dr. Benjamin Pinsky told the newspaper the lab is screening seven other presumptive cases. The results from those tests should come back early this week, according to the Chronicle.
Pinsky explained to ABC7 the strain is called the double mutant variant because it contains “two somewhat well-described mutations.
“In the spike protein of the virus, this includes the L452R mutation, which is found in the California variant, and then it has a mutation in another position, E484, that’s found in the South Africa and the Brazil variant,” he told the news outlet.
According to the Chronicle, the confirmed case of the emerging variant is a patient in the Stanford Health Care clinic. The infection likely occurred in Santa Clara County, the newspaper reported.
Health officials in the county told the Chronicle they aren’t monitoring the new strain yet as it hasn’t made it onto the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of variants of concern.
The identification of the new strain in the United States comes as concerns mount about the increasing number of variants of COVID-19 across the country and the world. Most of the strains the CDC has listed as being of concern are linked to the increased spread of the virus and reduced antibody protection against it.
“Viruses constantly change through mutation,” the CDC explains on its website. “A variant has one or more mutations that differentiate it from other variants in circulation. As expected, multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been documented in the United States and globally throughout this pandemic.”
The agency’s listed strains of variants of concern include B.1.1.7 from the United Kingdom, P.1 from Brazil/Japan and B.1.351 from South Africa as well as B.1.427 and B.1.429 from California.
A surge in the P.1 variant on Cape Cod led Massachusetts to initially top all U.S. states in its number of confirmed cases of the strain. However, Florida and Illinois are now leading the commonwealth, with the Bay State reporting 58 cases of the Brazil/Japan variant as of Tuesday, CDC data showed.
Massachusetts is also reporting 712 of the U.K. strain and 12 of the one from South Africa, according to the CDC.
The double mutant variant sounds a bit scary. I hope that no worse virus variants will appear. We can no longer bear more damage.

Can’t they just make the same decision North Korea would have made if it was in their country
Double mutant ni kini

Like play like play this planet as we know it, might experience a real life zombie apocalypse before the end of the decade.