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There is no evidence yet that the new strain of coronavirus that has emerged in New York City is affecting the Big Apple’s COVID-19 caseload — but it remains a “variant of interest,” health officials said Thursday.

City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said during a City Hall press briefing that there’s no evidence “at this point” that the new variant, known as B.1.526, “is what is contributing to the trajectory of cases, which we should emphasize continue to decrease.”

“We also don’t have any evidence at this point that the variant is concentrated in certain parts of the city,” Chokshi added.

Researchers revealed this week that the new strain – which shares some characteristics with the South Africa variant that scientists believe is more transmissible than others – has been spreading in New York City.

As of mid-February, the new variant was present in about 12 percent of coronavirus samples collected in the Big Apple and surrounding areas, according to a study published Thursday by researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“Patients with this novel variant came from diverse neighborhoods in the metropolitan area, and they were on average older and more frequently hospitalized,” the study says. “It is this novel variant that is surging, alarmingly, in our patient population over the past few weeks.”

New York’s B.1.526 variant was also the focus of a study published online this week by the California Institute of Technology. Neither study has been peer-reviewed.

Researchers say the new variant was first identified in samples collected in New York in November.

Anthony West, a staff scientist at the California Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the Caltech study, told The Post Thursday their research found that “a couple of mutations” of the New York strain “are shared with the South African variant,” including the mutation E484K.

“The E484K mutation is known to reduce the ability of certain antibodies to bind to the viral spike protein,” West said.

West said it would be “worth” doing further studies to examine how the COVID-19 vaccine protects against the new strain.

“A portion of the antibodies produced by the vaccine may not bind as strongly to the spike protein from the new lineage,” he said. “It’s worth doing various experiments to explore how much of an impact the mutations have.”

At the City Hall press briefing Thursday, officials emphasized the need for New Yorkers to keep following public health guidance like wearing a mask – or two – regular testing, and getting vaccinated when eligible.

“Not all variants are of public health concern,” said Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s senior adviser for public health.

Varma explained, “Some variants are just that they’re just a little bit different. Some variants are variants of interest — they have changes in their structure that might change the virus’s property.”

“And some variants are variants of what we call public health concern. They have these mutations and we have enough data to show that they change, whether the virus is more infectious, whether it’s more lethal, whether it can change immunity,” he said.

Varma added, “Right now, at least, for the report…that we have from Columbia, we need to just consider this a variant of interest – something that’s interesting that we need to follow and track. But it doesn’t change anything about our public health concern.”

“We need more data and studies to understand that,” Varma noted.

De Blasio called it “understandable” for New Yorkers to be concerned, but said “until there’s evidence that tells us that a variant is not handled well by the vaccine, for example, or a variant has different impacts, we shouldn’t assume the worst. We should say we need the facts.”

Varma said that the city has been “working incredibly intensely” to detect strains of the coronavirus, including the highly contagious UK variant, known as B.1.1.7.

“We are able to detect and track this new strain that’s been reported and we’ll continue to follow it,” Varma said of the B.1.526 variant.

Chokshi went on to say that the science surrounding the B.1.526 variant “is just less established compared to other variants like the UK variant.”

“Whether it’s a new strain that spreads more easily or causes more severe illness or reduces vaccine effectiveness, we have no indication that that’s the case yet, so we’ll continue to collaborate with our partners on those scientific questions,” he said

“But we shouldn’t let our scientific understanding outpace what we know works today with respect to public health precautions.”

Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks