First case of the Brazilian COVID-19 variant in California found in San Bernardino County

California’s first case of a COVID-19 variant discovered in Brazil earlier this year was detected in San Bernardino over the weekend, county officials said.

The California Department of Public Health alerted the county to the case on Saturday after it was detected in a positive test sample collected on March 2, San Bernardino County public information officer David Wert said in a statement. communicated.

Health officials are now investigating how the resident, a man in his 40s, may have been exposed to the variant. The man – who has not been vaccinated – is isolating himself at home, according to officials.

“We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to contact screening and contain the virus and work with CDPH to expand the entire genomic sequencing to identify more cases,” said county health officer, Dr. Michael S. Sequeira. “Slowing the spread of the disease and minimizing the spread of all variants is possible with contact tracking, strategic quarantine with masking and social distance and, most importantly, vaccination.”

The “Brazilian” P.1 variant is believed to be more contagious than the most common strain of the virus.