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Texas officials on Monday announced the first state-confirmed case of a variant coronavirus initially detected in South Africa.
The anonymous individual had traveled to the United States in December via international airports, returned to Fort Bend County and developed symptoms several days later, said Dr Jacquelyn Johnson Minter, director of the Fort County HHS. Bend, during a press briefing.
The person was medically assessed, tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection and the results came back positive. The individual has since recovered and officials learned of the case on Saturday, although it happened several weeks ago. The genomic sequencing of the positive tests by the Houston Methodist Hospital made it possible to discover the variant.
“It was on Saturday that we realized that we had two positive isolates for the British variant and one positive isolate for the South African variant,” said Dr S. Wesley Long of Houston Methodist Hospital. the briefing. “These isolates were found from three different individuals in different parts of the greater Houston metropolitan area.”
VIRGINIA CONFIRMS CASE OF CORONAVIRUS VARIANT IN SOUTH AFRICA IN ADULT RESIDENT
All household members tested negative and there was no exposure in the workplace, Minter said. Officials also detailed two additional cases of a variant first detected in the UK. Both cases concern men; one is a patient in his fifties currently hospitalized and the second did not require hospitalization. The UK variant B.1.1.7 was first announced in Texas about a month ago.
Houston officials have also detected variant B.1.1.7 in several sewage ponds at “very low levels”, but have yet to find evidence of the variant first detected in South Africa. , also known as B.1.351. While the implications are unclear in terms of how many people in the community could be infected, officials said the news should come as no surprise and is a reminder that the pandemic is far from over.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists 17 cases of variant B.1.1.7 in Texas, although this is likely an underestimate.
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Minter has advised the use of the mask, distancing and hand hygiene to protect against all variants of the coronavirus as vaccines continue to roll out.
Both strains are thought to be more transmissible and probably more virulent. Experts believe that the newly approved vaccines will remain effective against the variants, but the South African variant in particular has shown a decrease in vaccine effectiveness. While some drug sponsors work on creating variant recalls, the Food and Drug Administration is simultaneously developing plans to help guide the newly adjusted vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics towards faster regulatory approval.
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