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The South African COVID-19 strain has now been reported in nine states, including New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and one territory, as the country works to vaccinate as many people as possible to prevent the spread of the virus.
Other states reporting confirmed cases of the South African strain include:
- California;
- Texas;
- Illinois;
- Virginia;
- South Carolina;
- Maryland;
- The District of Columbia.
According to reports, the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been found to be slightly less effective in combating the South African variant, which has been shown to be more contagious, though not more lethal than other strains.
The CDC said that the South African strain emerged from the variant that first emerged out of the United Kingdom last month.
“I think one of the concerning things is that we know these two people did not know one another and that they did not travel to South Africa so the presumption is, at this point, that there has been community spread of this strain,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on NBC last month.
“That has always been our concern that when viruses mutate and they develop strains and dominant strains, they usually do so for some advantage to the virus," Walensky added. "That may come in the tune of our vaccines not working as well."
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