The medical team examines a coronavirus patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
Go Nakamura | Getty Images
Texas public health officials announced on Thursday that they had identified the first case of a new, more contagious coronavirus variant that was first discovered in the UK.
The patient, a 30- to 40-year-old man with no recent travel history, was discovered in Harris County, where Houston is located, the county’s public health department said in a statement. The man was isolated and in a stable condition, and local infectious disease specialists are tracking all of his contacts to find and monitor other people he may have exposed to the virus.
It is likely that the variant is already circulating in Texas because the man had no history of previous travel, said Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services, in a statement. He added that genetic variations in viruses “are the norm” and it is not surprising that the variant was discovered in Texas, considering the speed with which it spreads.
“This should make us all redouble our commitment to the infection prevention practices that we know work: masks whenever you’re around people you don’t live with, social detachment and personal and environmental hygiene,” said Hellerstedt.
Shortly after Texas officials announced their first case, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said in a tweet that his state had identified two cases of Covid-19 with the new variant, known as B.1.1.7, in people between 15 and 25 years. Both patients had a history of travel outside the state – one to Ireland and the other to New York state, Lamont said.
“As we said last week, given the speed of this new strand of the virus and its identification in several states in the country, we assume that it was already in our state and this morning’s information confirms that fact,” said the governor in a tweet.
The strain, which has also been found in California, Georgia, New York, Florida and Colorado, is considered to be more transmissible, but it does not appear to make people sicker or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts said. Earlier on Thursday, Pennsylvania health officials said they identified their state’s first case with the new variant.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said in a tweet on Thursday that the discovery of the variant in the area is “disturbing” due to the rapid spread there.
On Thursday, the county remained at its most serious threat level, “level one”, which means that testing and contact tracking efforts are tense and outbreaks are “present or worsening,” according to the website county.
When the municipality is at this level, residents are advised to leave their homes only for essential purposes and to minimize their contacts with others when possible.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States said that current vaccines should work against the new variant, although more hospitalizations may occur if spread is allowed without control. Federal health officials are also looking for a second, separate new strain, first identified in South Africa.
The CDC does not yet know how widespread the new variant B.1.1.7 is in the United States. The agency now requires that all airline passengers traveling from the UK to the United States present, before boarding, proof of Covid-19 negative test done no more than three days before departure.
– CNBC’s Will Feuer contributed to this report.