5 cases of new COVID-19 strain found in Minnesota
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The Minnesota Department of Health says a new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 first detected in the U.K. has been identified in five residents in the Twin Cities metro.
The people who tested positive range in age from 15 to 37 years old, and their illness onsets range from Dec. 16 to Dec. 31. They reside in four different counties across the metro area. Two of the patients said they had traveled internationally and one said they had not traveled; the travel history of the other two remains unknown.
None of them have been hospitalized.
State epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield said that because the new variant had been detected in several other states already, Minnesota health officials expected it to appear here eventually.
"Knowing that it is now here does not change our current public health recommendations,” Lynfield said.
FILE - This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. On Tuesday, April 21, 2020, U.S. health regulators OK'd the first coronavirus test that allows people to collect their own sample at home, a new approach that could help expand testing options in most states. The sample will still have to be shipped for processing back to LabCorp, which operates diagnostic labs throughout the U.S.[NIAID-RML via AP]
The novel cornavirus variant is believed to spread more easily from person to person but does not cause people to get more sick, Lynfield added.
MDH Director of Infections Disease Kris Ehresmann said the arrival of this strain in Minnesota "reinforces the importance of wearing a mask" to curb the spread of the airborne virus and to maintain social distancing outside the home and quarantine if you’ve been exposed to a positive case.
Ehresmann said the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use have been shown to be effective against the new strain.
The variant was first found in the U.K. in September. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday, the strain had been detected in at least 63 patients in eight other states.