Health | coronavirus More Contagious COVID Variant Confirmed in 3rd State B117 variant was found in Florida man in his 20s By Newser Editors Posted Jan 1, 2021 8:55 AM CST Copied Administrative worker Sander Edmondson, left, hands a COVID-19 testing kit to a woman at a testing site in Los Angeles, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) And then there were three states (that we know of). Florida on Thursday became the third state to say it has identified a case of the new B117 strain of coronavirus. The more contagious variant was found to have infected a Martin County man in his 20s who has no history of recent travel, reports NPR, which notes those details align with those of the cases found in Colorado and California thus far—all patients are men who have not left the US recently. The Guardian reports genome sequencing is being conducted on some 2 million US tests to get a sense of how long the variant has been in the US and how widespread it is. Results are expected within days. The paper suggests there is "a small possibility that it began in the US, not the UK, or elsewhere altogether." Read These Next James Carville has a new 4-word political mantra. "Theo" from The Cosby Show has died at age 54. More big names lend support to Stephen Colbert. Eleven arrested following viral video of honor killing. Report an error