Medical care suffers across LA County — even basic services outside COVID-19 wards bakersfield.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bakersfield.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
EAST LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 20: Sisters Dolores, right, and Dulce Chavez hold hands on their mother Edith Fernandez as Dolores husband Antonio Elizalde and son Valentine, 12, wait alongside her casket at the Continental Funeral Home on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020 in East Los Angeles, California. The 47-year-old died Dec. 8, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
New, potentially more contagious coronavirus variant found in California, Gov. Newsom says
LOS ANGELES – The new, potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom has been found in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
Los Angeles County records its 10,000th COVID-19 death yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Variant is no surprise
Experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, say the variant is no surprise, but they also say the new strain could change the way the virus behaves.
“I don’t think that Californians should feel that this is something odd,” Fauci said. “This is something that’s expected.”
Mutations in the coronavirus are not unanticipated, he said, considering that “the more you replicate, the more you mutate. So, when you have a lot of virus that’s circulating in the community, it means it’s infecting a lot of people; it’s replicating a lot.”
The “overwhelming majority of mutations are irrelevant,” he continued, but “every once in a while, you get a mutation that does impact a function of the virus.”