Health officials in South Carolina announced on Thursday that they have discovered two cases of the COVID-19 variant initially detected in South Africa.
These are the first two known cases of the variant in the US. The variant is considered to be more contagious than other variants and is also showing early signs of being less affected by vaccines.
Health officials in South Carolina said on Thursday that they have detected two cases of a more contagious coronavirus variant that emerged in South Africa.
CDC officials said they were aware of the first U.S. documented cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variant. President Biden extended travel bans to South Africa (put in place last year) on Monday.