Lambda COVID variant detected in Texas hospital

As it noticed a “spike” in the number of COVID-19 patients, a hospital in Texas reported its first case of the Lambda variant on Monday.

A patient at the Methodist Hospital in Houston has been confirmed to be infected with the Lambda variant, which first appeared in Peru in 2020, KHOU11 reported.

However, the highly transmissible Delta variant continues to be responsible for most new cases in the hospital system.

“We are seeing an alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Houston area, with the largest increase occurring over the weekend,” Houston Methodist said in a statement. “The increase in hospitalizations is adding stress to many of our hospitals as they approach capacity.”

In a press release, Houston Methodist said there were just over 100 COVID-19 patients in its hospital system a week ago, but that number has now grown to over 185. At least 85% of those patients were diagnosed with the Delta variant and the majority of patients were not vaccinated.

In a recent statement, the Houston Methodist urged Texans to get vaccinated, saying “far too many people” are choosing not to.

“If you haven’t been vaccinated yet, now is the time,” said Dr Randall Olsen, medical director of the hospital’s molecular diagnostic laboratory. “The vaccination will protect you from the Delta variant (and other variants) and, ultimately, is our best way out of the pandemic.”

The World Health Organization designated Lambda, also known as C.37, a “variant of interest” on June 14. The variant was first detected in Peru in August 2020 and has spread to at least 29 countries, including the United States according to the WHO.

Over 700 cases of the Lambda variant have been reported in the United States, according to a GISAID tracker

But as the variant spreads rapidly in South America, scientists say it’s not yet clear how much of a threat it poses.

“I don’t think there is more reason to be concerned than before we knew about this variant,” said Dr Nathaniel Landau, a microbiologist at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University who study the new variants. The New York Times earlier in July. “There’s no reason to think it’s anything worse than Delta now.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been working to deal with an increase in COVID-19 infections in the United States in recent weeks, in part thanks to a large number of eligible Americans who have yet to receive the vaccine. “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” President Joe Biden said on Friday.

More than 161 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.