Dallas County detects its 1st known case of COVID-19 variant
HOUSTON, TX – DECEMBER 14: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) A medical staff member Tiffany Price adjusts a ventilator circuit on a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on December 14, 2020 in Houston, Texas. According to reports, Texas has reached over 1,480,000 cases, including over 24,500 deaths. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
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DALLAS (KDAF) – Dallas County officials confirmed the area’s first known case of a COVID-19 variant on Saturday.
According to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, the patient is identified as a Dallas man in his 20s.
The man is said to have no recent history of travel outside the U.S. Health officials said the man is currently in isolation and is said to be doing OK.
“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,” Jenkins said.
Two other cases have been found in Harris County and Nueces County earlier this month.
Health officials are confident the already approved COVID-19 vaccines are effective against this variant strain.
Dallas County recently launched its ‘mega’ public site for COVID-19 vaccinations at Fair Park. Vaccinations are by appointment only. More than 10,000 people have been vaccinated at the Fair Park site this week since it opened.
Other cases of variant B.1.1.7 have been reported in California, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Connecticut, and Florida among others.
