Highly transmissible AY.4.2 Delta variant detected in 8 states in the U.S

A highly transmissible descendant of the Delta coronavirus variant has been detected in at least eight states.

The U.K. is also monitoring a growing number of cases.

The AY.4.2 variant has turned up in labs in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Nevada, Washington State, North Carolina, and D.C. 

Dr. Summer Galloway, executive secretary of the U.S. government’s SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group said “right now, I think there’s not a lot that we know. But in terms of the risk that it poses to public health, the prevalence is very low in the U.S., and we don’t really anticipate that the substitutions [of AY.4.2] are going to have a significant impact on either the effectiveness of our vaccines or its susceptibility to monoclonal antibody treatments.