ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus continues to spread as an Orange County resident tested positive for it, according to Dr. Raul Pino of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County.

The resident recently traveled to Mexico and tested positive for the more contagious UK variant after returning, Pino said on Thursday. This is the first resident in Orange County to test positive for this form of the virus.

The positive test for the new strain of the virus comes months into the coronavirus pandemic

“They spread faster than the regular virus, so we have to hurry and get vaccinated,” Pino urged. “We have to hurry and get vaccinated so that any future mutations of the virus do not affect the effectiveness of the vaccines. Right now it seems that that’s not be the case, but for sure this will not be probably the only generic modifications that we will see in the virus.”

It’s a race to try to get more people vaccinated faster than the new variant spreads.  

“UK variant will become the dominate strain,” Dr. Michael Muszynski said.

As the more contagious UK variant becomes the dominate strain, we’ll soon see a large peak of infections, which could rival the one we recently had, according to Muszynski, a professor emeritus at the UCF College of Medicine and an infectious disease specialist.

Florida so far has more cases of the UK variant, nearly 190, than any other state, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data indicates.

Central Florida counties have reported around a dozen cases, according to the state health department.

But it is believed the actual number is higher, since only around 4,000 COVID specimens statewide have been studied for mutations, per recent health department numbers.

The UK variant is the most susceptible to the vaccines. The South African and Brazilian strains are more resistant. 

“There is not zero coverage against these new variants,” Muszynski said, “There is coverage from the vaccine, but unless you get the vaccine out, there’s still a lot of people susceptible and they’ll get it.”

The longer the virus is allowed to spread, it could mutate genetically.

“The concern is that some of those modifications in the future could make it resistant to the vaccines,” Muszynski said.

It’s unclear how long it might take to reach herd immunity through vaccinations, doctors said.

In the meantime, Pino said it’s more important than ever for people to follow all of the safety precautions — including social distancing, good hygiene, avoiding large crowds, and wearing masks.

Spotting The UK Variant in Coronavirus Tests

It is being revealed how doctors can spot the variant when a coronavirus test comes in. With a more contagious strand, comes a different look in the lab.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Sajid Chaudhary with AdventHealth said it is in the variant's genetic material.

"A little bit different sequence of those nucleotides and nowadays we have the capability that it can exactly detect that it does not match with the parent virus," Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary said viruses naturally mutate and with more spread, means more precautions are even more necessary.

"To be really aggressive about the spread of this virus, and I'm glad that the federal government has taken that next step and they have mandated the masks," he said.

President Joe Biden's Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said scientists in the U.S. are keeping a close eye on British research.

"A recent study from the UK shows it might be more deadly, in terms of making people sicker," Fauci said.

He said the U.S. needs to keep the variant spread down as much as possible.​

"We don't want that to become dominant in our country, it might become dominant because it seems to be very efficient," Fauci said.