The Centers for Disease Control says Floridahas nearly half of the known cases in the United States of a mutated and likely more contagious strain of the coronavirus.
This news comes as Florida again broke its previous single-day record of coronavirus cases, adding nearly 20,000 infected people to its caseload on Thursday.
The variant that emerged in Britain was detected last week in a Martin County man in his 20s.
The CDC says Florida now has 22 cases of the mutated virus. California has 26 cases, Colorado has two and New York and Georgia have each reported one case of the new variant.
The report comes as the U.S. topped 4,000 daily deaths from the coronavirus for the first time, breaking a record set just one day earlier.
The tally from Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. had 4,085 deaths Thursday. The U.S. had nearly 275,000 new coronavirus cases as well.
The numbers are another reminder of the worsening situation following travel for holidays and family gatherings, along with more time indoors during the winter months. There’s been a surge in cases and deaths in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida.
More than 365,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.
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