New COVID-19 mutation found in New Mexico – KOAT New Mexico

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when the samples come to the lab, we screen them for Kobe on, if discovered positive were not proved it to screen them to see if any of these variants are present. Well, it’s very important for us to know which variant is out there. You know, some of the variance has been linked to increase, you know, in transmission off the virus. We don’t know if a variant can pop up that can lead to severe disease, right? So that’s why it’s very important, you know, toe get ahead of the curve to be able to see which vary in its present. First, we’re doing targeted, uh, PCR based testing to identify the mutations associated with the variance of concerns such as UK, South Africa, Brazil strain and also the most recently identified California strain. A number of them have these mutations that may impact their ability to be neutralized by the antibodies generated from vaccinations so they could impact the performance of the vaccines with the identification of the UK variant that, uh, the U. S. Um, realized that we were quite behind in, uh, variant surveillance. And so there has been a concerted effort Thio, get ahead of this and be able to identify these variants earlier on so that we can prepare appropriately