Medical staff examine a patient suffering from the coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
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Public health officials in Texas announced on Thursday that they have identified the state’s first case of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus initially discovered in the United Kingdom.
The patient, a man aged between 30 and 40 with no recent travel history, was discovered in Harris County, home of Houston, the county public health department said in a statement. The man was in isolation and in a stable condition, and local infectious disease experts are tracing all of his contacts to find and track other people he may have exposed to the virus.
The variant is likely already circulating in Texas because the man had no travel history, Dr. John Hellerstedt, the Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner, said in a statement. He added that genetic variations in viruses “are the norm,” and unsurprisingly, the variant was discovered in Texas, given the rate at which it spreads.
“This should make all of us double our commitment to the infection prevention practices that we know work: masks when you’re around people you don’t live with, social distance, and personal and environmental hygiene,” Hellerstedt said.
Shortly after officials in Texas announced their first case, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said in a tweet that his state identified two Covid-19 cases with the new variant, known as B.1.1.7, in people between the ages of 15 and 25 years. Both patients had an out-of-state travel history – one to Ireland and the other to New York State, Lamont said.
“As we said last week, we assumed that given the speed of this new part of the virus and its identification in several states across the country, it was already in our state and this information this morning confirms that fact,” said the governor in a tweet.
The species, which has also been found in California, Georgia, New York, Florida and Colorado, is believed to be more transmissible, but does not appear to make people sicker or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts said. . Earlier on Thursday, Pennsylvania health authorities said they had identified their state’s first case with the new variant.
Judge Lina Hidalgo of Harris County, the county’s top-chosen official, said in a tweet Thursday that the discovery of the variant in the area is “troubling” given its already rapid spread there.
As of Thursday, the district remained at its most severe threat level, “level one,” meaning testing and contact tracking efforts are tense and outbreaks are “present or worsened,” according to the district’s website.
When the county is at this level, residents are advised to leave their homes only for essential purposes and to minimize their contact with other people whenever possible.
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said current vaccines should work against the new variant, although more hospitalizations could occur if it is allowed to spread uncontrolled. Federal health officials are also looking for a second separate new species, first identified in South Africa.
The CDC does not yet know how widespread the new B.1.1.7 variant is in the United States. The agency now requires all air passengers traveling to the United States from the UK to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken no more than three days prior to their departure prior to boarding.
– CNBCs Want fire contributed to this report.