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Coronavirus

South Carolina Detects the First-Known U.S. COVID-19 Case of the South African Variant

The first Covid-19 cases in the U.S. of a new, highly contagious strain of the virus first found in South Africa have been detected in South Carolina, the state’s health department said Thursday.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said the strain, known as B.1.351, was found in two adults with no history of travel or connection to one another. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified South Carolina health officials late Wednesday that a sample that was tested at LabCorp was the B.1.351 variant, the health department said Thursday.

The state’s own public health lab later “identified a separate case of the same variant” in a sample tested on Monday, the South Carolina Department of Health said in a statement. While the strain appears to be highly transmissible, it doesn’t appear to make people sicker, the health department said.

Read the source article at cnbc.com

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