‘It will grow quickly.’ New more contagious COVID variant reported in Dallas County
A Dallas man has tested positive for the new more contagious strain of the coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom at the end of 2020, officials announced on Saturday morning.
It’s the first positive case of strain B.1.1.7 in Dallas County and the third in Texas, officials said in a news release. The man is in his 20s, according to the release, and has had no recent travel outside of the U.S. He’s in stable condition in isolation.
The results of genetic sequencing this week revealed the man was infected the B.1.1.7 strain, officials said.
The first Texas case of the COVID variant was reported in Houston on Jan. 7, about a week after the first U.S. case was identified in Colorado. The new variant, though more contagious, appears to be no more deadly, experts have said.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in the release the inevitable emergence of the strain in the county, given its role as a transportation hub, could further overwhelm hospitals already experiencing a surge in COVID patients. There is now a strain out there, Jenkins said, “that is 70% more contagious in our community and it will grow quickly.”
“January and February are slated to be our highest months of COVID infection rate,” Jenkins said. “If we don’t do all that we can now to renew our efforts to control spread, the new variant will cause an overrun of our hospitals and lengthen the time before we can beat COVID and return to our pre-COVID activities.”
He noted Dallas County is vaccinating tens of thousands of people a week at Parkland, UT Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas County Health and Human Services mega-sites. Parkland tweeted around 9:30 a.m. Saturday no more vaccines would be available on that day at its walk-up clinic.
The currently approved vaccines are expected to be just as effective against the COVID-19 variant, officials said.
Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang said in the release “we can assume there are more cases in our community due to the nature of this variant and how quickly it spreads.”
“We must remain vigilant in our fight against this virus,” he said, “and continue all preventative and protective measures such as wearing our mask, washing our hands and physical distancing.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 10:32 AM.
