Significant amount of California COVID-19 variant found in Monterey County

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) Monterey County officials say they have been conducting genomic testing to find COVID-19 variants, and they say they have found a significant amount of a new California strain in the county.

According to the CDC, the California strains found are some of the most concerning.

Coronavirus strains first detected in California are officially ‘variants of concern,’ CDC says

The CDC considers a variant a "Variant of Concern" if there is evidence that it is more transmissible, causes more severe disease, causes a "significant reduction in neutralization" by antibodies created during a previous infection or vaccination, is less affected by treatment or vaccines or causes failures in diagnostic findings

The CDC reports that two variants have been found in California, and both are about 20% more transmissible and are less affected by some treatments.