A new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom has been detected in Alabama for the first time.

The Alabama Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that two cases of the variant were confirmed in Montgomery County residents and a third in a Jefferson County resident. Two of the patients are children under the age of 19.

"These are the first reported cases in Alabama of the variant which was first detected in the United Kingdom in late 2020," the department said in a statement. "This variant is associated with increased person-to-person transmission of COVID-19. ADPH is closely monitoring the emergence of this variant which has been detected in at least 24 other states."

The so-called B117 variant, which is believed to have emerged in England in September, has been detected in more than two dozen U.S. states.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects that the country will have recorded up to 514,000 COVID-19 deaths by Feb. 20.

The CDC on Wednesday published its latest national ensemble forecast, which predicts that the country's COVID-19 death rate will likely decrease over the next four weeks and that 13,500 to 25,000 new fatalities from the disease will likely be reported in the week ending Feb. 20. A total of 479,000 to 514,000 COVID-19 deaths are projected to be reported nationwide by this date.

Last week’s national ensemble forecast predicted there would be a total of 465,000 to 508,000 COVID-19 deaths reported nationwide by Feb. 13.

ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

The United States has detected at least 315 confirmed cases of the highly contagious variant of the novel coronavirus that first emerged in the United Kingdom, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

California and Florida are tied at 92 cases each for the U.S. state with the most confirmed cases of the so-called B117 variant, according to CDC data.

The variant was first identified in England in September and has since spread to dozens of other countries around the world.

ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.

A COVID-19 vaccine advisory committee that gives recommendations on priority groups to Oregon's governor and public health officials will vote Thursday on whether to focus next on people of color, according to The Associated Press.

Others, such as people with chronic medical conditions, essential workers, refugees, inmates and people under 65 living in group settings, are also being considered as the next eligible group to receive COVID-19 vaccines in the state.

The committee is also deciding whether to focus on some combination of groups at higher risk from COVID-19, according to AP.

The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color in the United States.

"It's about revealing the structural racism that remains hidden," Dr. Kelly Gonzales, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a health disparity expert on Oregon's COVID-19 advisory committee, told AP. "It influences the disparities we experienced before the pandemic and exacerbated the disparities we experienced during the pandemic."

Forty people in Gambia who tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week have refused to self-isolate or have escaped treatment centers, according to the country's health ministry, which vowed to reveal the identities of those flouting public health regulations.

Officials are also aware of a "large number of travelers who recently arrived" in the small West African nation from countries considered COVID-19 hotspots and "have refused to abide to official protocols and/or report to the health authorities for the mandatory test upon arrival," said Modou Njai, director of health promotion and education at Gambia's Ministry of Health.

"The Ministry continues to treat these matters with utmost and grave concern and thus, the Ministry is hereby giving an order and ultimatum to all those concerned, that they are required to report themselves to the health authorities with immediate effect and failure of which will lead to serious consequences, including the publication of names and identifying information of all those at large," Njai said in a statement Tuesday.

"The Ministry would like to stress that this serious and ruthless misconduct will no longer be condoned under any circumstances," he added. "Anyone found not willing to cooperate with COVID-19 regulations will have their names and identifying information published on the media and thereafter, drastic measures will be taken against anyone that is non-compliant."

Gambia, home to some 2.3 million people, has confirmed 4,008 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 128 deaths, according to the latest data from the health ministry.