May 28, 2021 at 5:46 am A report by the Hawai‘i Department of Health’s State Laboratories Division (SLD) shows COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2) variants of concern account for a greater percentage of total COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i than ever and that percentage continues to increase. SLD also reports a growing presence of the P.1 variant which is highly infectious and may be more resistant to antibodies from vaccination or previous infection. SLD has detected 1,023 specimens of variants of concern since the first variant of concern was detected in Hawai‘i on January 21, 2021. The B.1.429 variant, first found in California, was the dominant variant in March and early April. It has been detected 631 times.