‘Super’ Covid-19 Emerges in Florida, 3rd State After California and Colorado

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Florida on Thursday became the third state to announce that a patient had contracted a more contagious variant of Covid-19.

“Florida has evidence of the first identified case of the U.K. COVID-19 variant in Martin County,” Florida’s Health Department wrote on Twitter Thursday evening. “The individual is a male in his 20s with no history of travel. The department is working with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] on this investigation. We encourage all to continue practicing COVID-19 mitigation.”

The mutation of the virus, which is known as B.1.1.7 or VUI-202012/01, was first discovered in the United Kingdom. A California man tested positive for the first known case in the United States in California on Wednesday. Two members of the Colorado National Guard subsequently tested positive. None of the three had traveled outside of the country.

Medical experts have described the virus as 70 percent more contagious than the original version. More than 40 countries around the globe restricted travel to and from the U.K. before Christmas in an effort to prevent it from reaching their shores, though Dr. Anthony Fauci advised against taking similar action in the U.S. “Keep an eye on it,” Fauci said in an interview. “Don’t overreact to it.”

The emergence of the virus in Florida’s Martin County, about two hours’ driving distance north of Miami, could also pose a problem for health officials seeking to contain its spread. Miami-Dade County accounted for 295,548 of Florida’s 1.3 million Covid-19 infections in 2020 — meaning the original virus spread to nearly twice as many residents of that region compared to the rest of the state. That rapid spread took place despite extreme measures taken by local officials to tamp down on new infections, including prolonged lockdowns, curfews, and aggressive efforts by police to force residents to wear face coverings, even in outdoor settings.

If the virus is more widespread than authorities originally believed, it wouldn’t be the first time. The CDC found the first known case of Covid-19 in the U.S. on Jan. 20 last year, but the Red Cross later said research conducted on old blood samples suggested the virus was present in the U.S. as early as Dec. 13-16, 2019, in patients from California, Oregon, and Washington.