DENVER – Colorado has confirmed two more cases of a strain of the coronavirus believed to be more contagious, giving the state a total of three confirmed cases. Officials are also investigating a fourth suspected case of the variant that emerged in Britain, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Thursday.
One of the two new confirmed cases was one that state health officials previously said was a suspected case involving a National Guard member deployed to work at a nursing home in Simla overwhelmed by a COVID-19 outbreak, the department said. Colorado’s first variant case, the first to be announced in the country, was also found in a Guard member who worked there.
The other new variant case and the other suspected case were found in staff members at a state-operated veterans’ nursing home, the Veterans Community Living Center at Fitzsimmons in Aurora. No other cases have been discovered through routine testing there but regular testing will continue, the department said.
The people with the new confirmed and suspected cases have been ordered to isolate themselves and their close contacts have been ordered to quarantine, the department said.
The B.1.1.7 variant has also been found in California, New York, Georgia and Florida.