More transmissible U.K. variant is 'probably widely spread throughout the state' Health experts warn of COVID variants making their way across the world and into Virginia and last updated 2021-04-06 09:21:00-04 RICHMOND, Va. -- A VCU Infectious Disease Epidemiologist predicts the more transmissible U.K. variant known as B117, will dominate the country by the end of the month and is already widely spread throughout Virginia. "We're in a footrace, between the vaccine and the virus variant," said Dr. Richard Wenzel, infectious disease epidemiologist with VCU. Wenzel estimated the B.1.1.7 variant already made-up 50% of infections now. In Virginia, Wenzel said the first case was identified in late January, and by early March there were 20 known cases across the state.