The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the two coronavirus variant strains found in California are “variants of concerns.”
- These new strains may be 20% more transmissible than the normal mutation, the CDC said, citing recent research.
- The CDC said some treatments might be less effective against those new coronavirus strains, too.
- The two strains include the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants, which were discovered in California.
Context
The California strains join the B.1.351 mutation, which was first discovered in South Africa, the P.1 variant, which came from Japan and Brazil, and the B.1.1.7, which was originally discovered in the United Kingdom, according to the CDC.
CNN reports there are concerns among health officials that treatments for COVID-19 might not work as well on those affected by the variant.
Flashback
As I wrote in January, one of the California strains — at the time called CAL.20C — accounted for 36% of all virus samples collected at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and 24% of all samples in Southern California, according to CBS News.
The CAL.20C variant is now known as the B.1.429 variant mentioned above.