Hawaii Labs On The Lookout For More Contagious COVID-19 Variants…The mutations found in other U.S. states have not appeared yet in the islands but officials say it’s just a matter of time.
New and highly infectious strains of the coronavirus have not yet been detected in Hawaii, but the director of the state’s laboratory says the lab is actively searching for clues that would indicate a new variant is circulating among the islands.
One of the latest and highly infectious mutations of the virus that causes COVID-19 disease is circulating on the continental U.S. The variant, called B.1.1.7, was first detected in Britain and has since been discovered in states including California, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.
“It’s probably a matter of time that we’ll see one of the new variants here,” Dr. Libby Char said at a press conference Tuesday. “To that end, the better we can isolate that variant and not let it get a widespread grip on our community the better off we’ll be.”