Colorado health officials this week announced the state has identified its first cases of a worrisome coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil late last year. .
The variant, which is scientifically referred to as P.1., was identified in two Boulder Counter residents, according to a news release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which noted that the Centers for Diease Control and Prevention (CDC) first notified state health officials of the P.1.
"Prior travel history for both individuals is unknown at this time," officials said, adding they now "investigating possible exposures and performing contact tracing to determine if the variant virus has spread to others.".
While the P.1 variant has been determined to be more transmissible than the wild type of coronavirus, Oxford University recently said new findings showed it poses less of a threat than previously thought to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Early research suggests that the currently authorized vaccines are effective against known variants, though perhaps to varying degrees depending on the strain," Colorado health officials said in the news release
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