The first two cases in the United States of a contagious new strain of COVID-19 were confirmed in South Carolina, the Department of Health and Environmental Control said Thursday.
The coronavirus variant that recently emerged in South Africa after being first found in the United Kingdom was confirmed in two samples from South Carolina that were tested by the CDC.
Experts said existing vaccines will work to protect from this variant, even if it isn’t know precisely how effective the vaccines are. While this variant is believed to spread more easily, there’s no evidence to suggest that the B.1.351 variant causes more severe illness, DHEC said in a news release.
Both of the confirmed cases of the variant were found in adult South Carolina residents — one from the Lowcountry and one from the Pee Dee region, according to the release.
There’s currently no known travel history and no connection between these two cases, DHEC said.
“This is important information for South Carolinians to have, but it isn’t a reason for panic,” Gov. Henry McMaster said on Twitter.
The B.1.351 variant has been identified in more than 30 countries but these are the first cases of this variant identified in the United States. Other states have had cases of another, called B.1.1.7, originally identified in United Kingdom. Both variants originally detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa spread easier and quicker than the majority of SARS-CoV-2 variants.
