FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – There has been a new strain of Coronavirus circling the globe which has been most recently discovered in Colorado.
Experts say that even though this new strain isn’t in Arkansas, it’s something to be mindful of.
“It is a race against time and we want time to be on our side not on the virus’ side,” says Chancellors for UAMS, Dr. Cam Patterson.
Patterson said that in terms of what scientists know about the new strain, there’s good news and bad.
“It’s not likely to impact the vaccine response it’s not likely to be resistant to the drug that we are using it does not appear to form a more severe form of COVID-19 infection,” Patterson said.
Chief Medical Officer at the Fayetteville Community Clinic, Dr. Gary Berner said this isn’t the first time the Coronavirus mutated, and it probably won’t be the last.
“They mutate and they mutate a lot so they make changes and we already know there have been several changes to the Coronavirus as we have gone along this pandemic,” Berner said.
While this new strain doesn’t appear to be more dangerous than the last “we are in a race agent time to get enough vaccines,” says Patterson, “to get enough vaccines into the state and distribute it so we can cut this off before it gets here.”
Patterson tells me that because this new strain is twice as infectious it makes it even more important not to travel and to follow the governor’s mandates.
