4:11 The U.K. variant of COVID has been confirmed in Vermont for the first time. On Thursday, officials in the state’s largest city reported they detected evidence of the variant in wastewater. Last August testing began at Burlington, Vermont’s wastewater facilities three times a week for signs of COVID -19. Considered an emerging technology for early detection of the coronavirus, the testing is done under the guidance of the CDC and any positive results must be confirmed with further tests. The process is meant to mitigate the spread of the disease. In mid-January Burlington expanded testing to detect COVID-19 variants. Mayor Miro Weinberger announced Thursday afternoon that testing results received Wednesday night had identified the more contagious U.K. strain. “We’ve been signaling for weeks that we know that these variants are nearby and they were likely to get here soon. And in fact when the results came in there was an indication that we have detected mutations associated with the U.K. variant of COVID-19.”