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UF Health investigating if new COVID-19 variant has arrived in Jacksonville

Officials say the COVID-19 virus has already mutated several times since the pandemic began.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — There are still a lot of questions that can't be answered about the new COVID-19 variant from England that was found in Colorado, California and Florida this week, but First Coast News verified the facts health officials know about the latest virus mutation.

“Research is showing that [the variant is] somewhere between 56 to 70% more contagious than what we've seen previously," Chad Neilsen, UF Health Jacksonville Director of Infection Prevention said. "So, that's obviously a pretty big cause of concern.”

However, he said that doesn’t mean the new COVID-19 variant is more lethal. 

The first reported U.S. case of the variant in Colorado Tuesday was a man with no travel history, which leads Neilsen to believe it’s already widespread in the country and just hasn’t been detected through laboratory science.

Thursday the Florida Department of Health reported the state's first case of the new variant in a 20-year-old man from Martin County who also had no prior history of travel.

“Our hospital is working on actually doing some sequencing ourselves to see if it's here at Jacksonville," he explained. "We should have some of those results next week.”

This is not unexpected, Neilsen said, in fact, the COVID-19 virus has already mutated several times since the pandemic began.

“Both Moderna and Pfizer are working in their labs right now to validate their vaccine against this new variant," he added. "Although those results aren't out there, experts are very confident that the vaccine will protect against this new variant as well.”

   

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