A new coronavirus variant out of California is spreading in Virginia.
On Thursday, the Virginia Department of Health reported the first two cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.427 and B.1.429.
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These variants first emerged in California in the summer of 2020.
The cases were identified in samples collected from two adult residents between December 2020 and February 2021. VDH did not disclose what region these cases are from.
The map below shows precisely how VDH defines Virginia’s health planning regions.
[Where are Virginia’s coronavirus cases? The health department’s interactive map]
VDH says that this strain is associated with increased person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, but at this time there’s no evidence that infections with these variants cause more severe disease.
These two new variants were recently added to the CDC’s Variant of Concern list.