PEKIN, Ill. – Illinois’ first known cases of a variant of COVID-19, found in DuPage County, were detected at Pekin’s Reditus Labs last week.
Reditus Laboratories CEO Dr. Aaron Rossi said to date, 12 cases of the variant V70X have been found nationwide, but Illinois hasn’t experienced any additional cases.
Reditus Labs began using a new platform last week, NextGen sequencing, to help detect the mutation.
“In layman’s terms, it’s like basically laying the alphabet, A-Z, on the top and then A-Z on the bottom, and you look for any base pair mismatches,” Rossi said.
NextGen Sequencing is widely used in cancer research and Oncology.
Rossi said information about variants like V70X changes daily, and there’s still much to be learned.
“It’s suggested from a University of Arizona study that it’s a variant of the U-K variant. So, it’s like a variant of a variant,” Rossi said.
Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines are believed to cover variants like V70X, though they may be more contagious and spread quicker than the original virus.
Reditus Labs tests roughly 85% of all Illinois specimens taken for COVID-19 detection.
Full interview with Dr. Aaron Rossi :
