HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Some South Florida healthcare workers have begun receiving their second shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
This comes as a new strain of the novel coronavirus has been detected in Florida.
It’s been known for weeks that the virus that causes COVID-19 mutated, creating a different strain.
The variant is said to be more contagious and was first noticed overseas, until a case in Colorado.
The latest case of the variant is a man in Martin County, Florida.
“He is doing extremely well and he out of isolation,” said Carol Ann Vitani with the Florida Department of Health.
Local 10 has learned the State of Florida is involved with the CDC on a random sampling surveillance program.
That means certain random samples of COVID-19 tests administered in Florida are sent to the CDC for various testing. That’s how the Martin County case was discovered.
Health officials meanwhile are pushing the importance of the vaccine to combat COVID-19 and to end the pandemic.
There is no evidence that the new strain is resistant to the vaccines on the market.
Healthcare workers on the frontline with Memorial Healthcare System started to get their second dose on Sunday of the 2-shot Pfizer vaccine.
The second shot, experts say, should boost their protection against virus by as much as 95 percent.