Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Colorado State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy confirmed in a press conference today that not only has the state confirmed one man in his 20s as having the U.K. variant of COVID-19 (B.1.1.7), but that another Colorado man is suspected as having the same variant. Neither has traveled out of the state
Dr. Herlihy said that both men are members of the Colorado National Guard. They were deployed to support staffing at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla, Colorado, in Elbert County, outside Denver, Herlihy said. Simla’s population, according to World Population Review, is fewer than 700.
Dr. Herlihy said there has been an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at the facility, since at least December.
The facility has 26 residents, all of whom have COVID-19, according to Dr. Herlihy, and four residents have died of COVID-19. Dr. Herlihy said it doesn’t seem that the variant is circulating within the nursing home. It was not immediately clear whether the soldiers acquired the virus at the facility or elsewhere, Herlihy said, but officials at State Department of Health are “exploring all possibilities.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced this morning in a press conference that the variant has also been confirmed in a patient in Southern California.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, in the same press conference, said the variant does not seem to make people more sick, and doesn’t lead to death any more readily. However, it appears to spread more easily than the initial version of COVID-19. He said study is ongoing.
