Concern has been building about the new SARS-CoV-2 strain discovered last month in the U.K., and on Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an official alert stating that it could trigger false negatives in COVID-19 tests.
The B.1.1.7 strain has been found to spread more quickly than the original infection, but has not been found to be any more severe. As of last week, more than 50 cases of the new variant had been confirmed in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported.
