RE:“New variant” testing Point well taken. It is my understanding that this virus, among the many other virsus does mutate quite often. On July 6, 2020 the Daily podcast covered this. Research has shown that viruses (including covid-19) mutates at least every 2 weeks. This is why it was very risky for anyone other than Donald Trump to come out and say that heard immunity was the answer. International travel allows signifcantly different strains of the virus (Wuhan, Italy versions, etc.) to spread to areas where only minor mutations were previously observed.
An annoucement would be ideal. But the better question is to ask when will the peer-review publication be made public to the public? We were told to wait until last Thursday unless I misinterpreted what was said.