US: More contagious COVID variant found in New York

WASHINGTON

A more contagious COVID-19 mutation first identified in the UK has now been found in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.

The identification raises to four the number of states who have found the variant among their populations. California, Colorado and Florida had all previously announced cases.

The patient who tested positive is from Saratoga County in upstate New York, Cuomo said on Twitter. The governor reportedly said on a conference call with the press that the patient, whom he identified as a male, had not traveled recently and was therefore likely infected from within the community.

The US is failing at reining in the outbreak with a record-high number of cases recorded on Saturday when 297,491 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19. That is about 50,000 more infections than the previous high from mid-December, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Fatalities from the virus peaked Dec. 30 when 3,750 people lost their lives to the virus.

In all, 352,645 people have been killed by COVID-19 in the US, as over 20.7 million people have been infected.