The first case of the Covid-19 variant from the U.K. is confirmed in Monterey County.

The B.1.1.7 Covid-19 variant, considered more infectious and potentially deadlier than the original virus, has been confirmed in Monterey County according to a health advisory sent to local medical facilities by Monterey County Health Officer Edward Moreno on April 15. The variant was first detected in the United Kingdom last year, and has been spreading throughout the U.S., although mostly in the Midwest and East.

Monterey County’s first known case of the B.1.1.7 variant was in a resident who tested positive for Covid in late February and has since recovered. The Monterey County Public Health Laboratory freezes samples and then later tests some of the samples looking for variants and reports those findings to the state. Most of the variants that have shown up in these samplings are what’s known as the West Coast variants, B.1.427 and B.1.429.

The B.1.1.7 variant has been shown in research to increase the risk of transmission by approximately 50 percent and “may be associated with increased disease severity and risk of death,” according to the health advisory.

The advisory asks the county’s health care providers to help in the monitoring of variants by looking out for certain symptoms among patients. The Public Health Lab will accept samples from those patients for variant testing.

Symptoms include: “possible vaccine escape,” a medical term for someone who contracts the disease after having been fully vaccinated; a possible second infection after recovering from Covid-19 more than 90 days before; anyone who develops Covid symptoms and has a positive test within 14 days of international travel; and anyone who tests positive for Covid and is admitted into intensive care.