The New York state has confirmed its first case of a new and more contagious version of the coronavirus, which was initially discovered in the UK.
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday confirmed that the new strain has been found in the state. The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County. The man worked at a jewelry store, where three other COVID-19 cases have been detected, Cuomo said. He said officials don't yet know if those cases are the UK strain as well.
"He did not travel recently so this suggests it was in the community," he said.
The new strain, which has also been found in California, Florida and Colorado, is said to be more transmissible. Cuomo said the state has conducted about 5,000 tests in search for the new variant, known as B.1.1.7.
"If other states could test as much as we were testing and tested for the U.K. strain as much as we've tested, they would be finding them," Cuomo said. "But it is more transmittable, which means higher positivity rate, higher infection rate, possibly higher hospitalization rate."
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed a national lockdown on England in order to curb the spread of the new, highly contagious variant of Covid-19.
People can only leave their homes to shop for essentials, work if they can't from home, exercise, and go to the doctor's, he said in an announcement Monday. Primary schools, secondary schools and colleges will also move to remote learning Tuesday, except in rare cases, he said.
"I completely understand the inconvenience and distress this change will cause millions of people and parents up and down the country," Johnson said. "The problem isn't that schools are unsafe for children ... the problem is that schools may act as vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread between households."
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