Ventura County Public health officials say a COVID-19 mutation has been discovered in the county, but they don’t know yet whether it’s the more easily transmitted version found in the United Kingdom.
It was detected during routine testing of wastewater from the Oxnard sewage treatment facility. More testing is planned to see if it’s the UK version of the virus.
Officials say at this point, they don’t think it’s widespread in the county.
Meanwhile, more than 1200 new cases of the virus were reported on the Central and South Coasts Friday. There were 653 cases in Ventura County, 406 in Santa Barbara County, and 168 in San Luis Obispo County.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ventura County has had 69,050 diagnosed cases of the virus, Santa Barbara county 28,150, and San Luis Obispo County 17,605. It brings the three-county total to 114,705.
27 additional deaths were reported in the three counties, bringing the overall number since the start of the pandemic to 1055. The county-by-county includes 598 deaths in Ventura County, 289 in Santa Barbara County and 168 in San Luis Obispo County.
