The contagious new COVID-19 mutation from the UK has officially made it to the United States, Colorado health officials said Tuesday.
The COVID-19 variant that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned could be 70 percent more transmissible was identified in an Elbert County man in his 20s, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.
“There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious,” Polis said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The news comes the day after White House testing czar Brett Giroir said the mutation was “likely” already in the country.
“We don’t have proof that it’s here, but we do suspect that it is likely here, given the global interconnectedness,” Giroir said on “Good Morning America.”
Giroir and other officials have said the strain is no more deadly than its more common counterpart, however.