A 23-year-old Florida man was out of isolation Saturday after being the first person in the state to test positive for a new and more contagious strain of COVID-19, health officials said.
The presence of the new strain in Martin County was first discovered Thursday through a random sampling of COVID-19 tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said it was now working with the Florida Department of Health to examine more cases in the area and determine how widely the new strain has spread.
It was unclear when the man tested positive, but Martin County health official Carol Ann Vitani described the patient Saturday as “very cooperative” in following COVID-19 protocols. The person was asymptomatic and had not traveled outside the state recently.
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