Oklahoma health officials say genome sequencing will help identify Covid-19 virus

(AP) – Oklahoma health officials say genome sequencing will be up and running this week at the state health lab to help identify variants of the COVID-19 virus. Officials with the Oklahoma Pandemic Center for Innovation and Excellence said Thursday that two variants already were discovered in Oklahoma. Those include the P.1 variant, known as the Brazilian variant, and the B.1 1.7 variant referred to as the U.K. variant. Oklahoma reported 1,146 confirmed new coronavirus cases on Thursday and 38 additional deaths. That brings the total number of confirmed infections to 422,156 and the state’s death toll to 4,302.