The two people recently traveled abroad, according to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and local health officials on Tuesday.
Two Montgomery County, Maryland residents are confirmed to have a new strain of coronavirus that is believed to be more infectious and was first identified in South Africa.
The two people recently traveled abroad, according to Maryland governor Larry Hogan and local health officials, and the cases are believed to be unrelated to transmission in the community.
The coronavirus B. 1,351 strain is one of the few mutant strains that have emerged worldwide.
These are now the second and third cases of the variant discovered in Maryland.
State health officials and the CDC confirmed two additional cases of variant B. 1,351 (South Africa) in Maryland. The two individuals, who recently traveled abroad, reside in Montgomery County. Contact tracking is in progress and nearby contacts are isolating.
– Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) February 2, 2021
Last weekend, the state announced its first known case involving a Baltimore resident. This person had not recently traveled abroad.
Montgomery County health officials first indicated the two possible cases of the South African strain on Monday, but said they were awaiting final confirmation from the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to being more transmissible, the strain first identified in South Africa has not been shown to cause more serious illness or increase the risk of death, Hogan said on Twitter. “The initial evidence suggests that vaccines may still be protective against the variant,” he said.
The South African variant was first detected in the US last month in South Carolina. Maryland is only the second US state to identify cases involving that specific variant.
Before the positive results were confirmed, Montgomery County Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles told Montgomery County Council members that the Maryland Department of Health has increased its ability to sequence viral strains to identify the different strains of coronavirus.
Also last month, Maryland announced its first known cases of the new coronavirus strain first identified in the UK in two Anne Arundel county residents – one had recently traveled abroad and the other was the traveler’s wife.
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