The U.S. state of Colorado has confirmed what is reportedly America’s first case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant that has recently appeared in Britain, the governor said Tuesday.
“Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK,” said state governor Jared Polis.
He added an official statement from his office and state health officials that the man is a “male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history.”
The person did not have close connections, the statement said, but the situation will continue to be tracked “very closely” and the authorities are trying to find any possible cases via contact tracing.
Fears have been raised by the new strain of Covid-19, which experts say is potentially more transmissible.