New COVID-19 variant developing in Arizona, study finds

PHOENIX — Researchers have identified a new COVID-19 variant developing in Arizona, and the effects of the E484K or the Eek variant are still being studied.

“I don’t think we need to be eeking out,” Dr. David Engelthaler, co-director of the pathogen genomics division at TGen North, told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad on Tuesday.

“Clearly this is a variant that has some important mutations in it,” he added. “However, this is what we’re doing right now. We’re tracking every single variant, all these mutations, in a way we hadn’t done before.”

Arizona State University researchers detailed their findings so far on the variant through a study published Sunday in a scientific journal. They wrote that this new variant of interest “is in the process of being established in Arizona and beginning to cross state borders to New Mexico and Texas.”

“We do think that there’s a possibility of some negative effects of this variant,” Engelthaler said. “We don’t know that it’ll spread faster. At this point, we don’t know if it’s going to become important at all in Arizona.”

He added it is being monitored on a week-by-week basis to see if it becomes more prevalent in the state.

The South African, the Brazilian and the U.K. variants of COVID-19 have already been discovered in Arizona.

Engelthaler stressed getting people vaccinated is the best way to prevent more variants from developing.

“The virus is evolving essentially right before our very eyes,” he said. “What’s happening is you kind of have this race for the survival of the fittest strains, and those are the ones we’re calling variants.”

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