DENVER, the United States, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Despite a day filled with ominous reports from Central Texas and Southern California that the more lethal variant of COVID-19 had surfaced, the U.S. state of Colorado on Wednesday eased restrictions imposed on state residents and businesses.

"In reviewing the data, Colorado has been in a sustained decline for 13 days, and only 73 percent of ICU beds statewide are in use," Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted Wednesday night.

The popular governor said he would move "counties in Red on the dial to Orange" on Jan. 4, 2021, thus allowing many businesses to reopen.

Restaurant owners and conservatives applauded Polis's move, while health care workers and his liberal followers were aghast.

Only one day prior, the governor tweeted that the state had discovered its first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in Britain, and "the health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority."

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said its lab was the first in the United States to identify the new variant, but it's unlikely that the patient is the first person to have it in the country.

Earlier on Wednesday, state healthcare officials announced they had found a second potential case of the variant and both patients are members of the Colorado National Guard who were deployed to a nursing home.

They were sent Dec. 23 to aid a nursing home in Elbert County, where 20 out of 24 workers and all 26 residents had contracted the virus, said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, an epidemiologist with the state health department, at a news conference Wednesday.

In all, six National Guard personnel were deployed to the facility to assist with staffing, and so far no additional troops had tested positive, local media Colorado Spring Gazette reported, adding that it's possible that the positive Guardsman contracted the variant in the community, not at the nursing home.

On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the new variant had been found in the southern part of his state.

In Texas, health care professionals were scrambling to assess the impact of the new strain that had just surfaced in the state.

"We know that it's spreading easier and faster, but we don't see an increase in the severity of illness," Karen Percell, executive director of quality management at Advent Health, a health organization, told ABC News 25.

Percell said research from Britain and Canada showed that the symptoms for B 1.1.7 are the same as the normal strand of COVID-19, but the contagion could be more widespread and dangerous.

"The reality is that it probably will if it's not already here in Texas. It's just one more part of the virus we have to deal with," said Kelly Craine, a public health staff at Waco-McLennan County in Texas.

Texas health care professionals noted that it's too early to say what impact the new strain will have on Central Texas, but that it would not change the precautions taking since March, Craine said.

"It's already something that we have seen that can spread efficiently, so this just amps it up one more notch," she told local media. Enditem

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