Chicago (AP) — Officials say the first case of the more infectious Brazil variant of COVID-19 in Illinois has been detected in a Chicago resident. City and state public health officials said Friday that Northwestern University researchers found the so-called P.1 variant in a test sample from a Chicago resident who came down with the disease. The infected person told contact tracers they hadn’t recently traveled outside Illinois. The P.1 strain was first found in Brazilian travelers who arrived in Tokyo in early January. It appeared in Minnesota later that month and has since been identified in several other states.
