In a statement, US health officials said the infected person was a resident of Minnesota and had traveled to Brazil and that his biological samples were taken on January 9.
“The person fell ill in the first week (…) and reported traveling to Brazil before getting sick,” the Minnesota Department of Health said in a statement.
The Brazilian version of the new coronavirus is one of three SARS-CoV-2 mutations that have caught the attention of the entire planet, along with the British and South Africans.
This variant originated in Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas federal state, and is considered highly contagious because it contains similar genetic mutations to those found in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
On Monday, Italy announced the first case of the Brazilian version, while the first case was announced in Germany last Friday.
The pharmaceutical company Moderna reported on Monday that its vaccine, already in use in several countries, protects against the British and South African variants, but it has no data yet on the potential protection against the Brazilian strain.
