Additional COVID-19 variant cases identified at University of Michigan Updated Jan 25, 2021; Facebook Share ANN ARBOR, MI — The more contagious variant of COVID-19, known as B.1.1.7, was recently identified in a cluster of University of Michigan students. The school learned of the additional cases over the weekend and fear there could be more discovered in the next several days, university officials said in a campus-wide email Sunday, Jan. 24. The variant strain was identified as a result of regular university testing followed by additional testing in UM labs, the school said. As of Monday morning, all eight people with cases of the variant in Washtenaw County have been associated with UM.