The Oregon Health Authority has identified the first six cases of B.1.617 — the highly transmissible COVID-19 variant that has devastated India this spring — within Oregon’s borders.
Public health officials first reported two cases of one of the variant’s subtypes — B.1.617.2 — on May 12, followed by two more cases May 19 and another two cases Wednesday. Health authority spokesman Tim Heider said Wednesday that at least one of the cases was detected in someone who’d traveled internationally recently.