February 26, 2021
A new strain of the COVID-19 virus that has the ability to reinfect people who survived it before is now present on Oahu, state health officials said Friday.
The Brazil strain the second of two that originated there and is being monitored as having worrisome mutations has been tied to infections across the U.S. and in Europe and was found in one Oahu patient who recently traveled to the mainland.
The discovery was made by the Hawaii State Laboratories Division, where scientists analyze about 7.8% of all COVID-19 tests collected in the islands, or about 75 specimens per week, in search of variants that international scientists have flagged as concerning.