SAN ANTONIO — Metro Health officials have detected two cases of variant coronavirus strains in Bexar County, city officials announced Tuesday.
The cases, which involve the coronavirus strain first identified in the UK, are the first confirmation of a COVID-19 variant in Bexar County.
“With the variant being in Texas since early January, our team has prepared and partnered with the state to test local COVID-19 samples for the different variants at the state lab," said Dr. Anita Kurian in a release from Metro Health.
“This serves as a wake-up call for the community to continue to do their best to follow the guidelines of Public Health professionals and not let their guards down. We ask the public to please continue to use a face mask, follow social distancing guidelines, and please stay home if they are sick. This pandemic is not over and we must continue to do our part to fight this virus.”
KENS 5 reached out to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo and asked if the new variant in the community will change plans to kick off the event Thursday. A spokesperson said there are no plans to cancel the event and sent us this statement:
"The safety measures at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo exceed current local and state health guidelines. Any updated safety measures put forth by the state of Texas will be adhered to."
The first known case of the UK variant B-1.1.7. in Texas was discovered in Harris County on January 7. The infected person had no history of travel, which suggested there could've been community spread in the state.
This week, officials confirmed more cases of the UK COVID-19 strain in the Houston area, as well as a case of a South African variant in Fort Bend County.
Earlier this month, Austin Public Health confirmed Travis County's first case of the UK COVID-19 variant. Two days later, more variant cases were identified on the University of Texas-Austin campus. Austin health officials said at the time that the strain has been suspected in the area for weeks.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Tuesday that about 40 variant cases have been confirmed in Texas so far.
Many coronavirus variants are circulating around the world, but health experts are primarily concerned with the emergence of three, according to an Associated Press report from January. While cases of the UK and South African variants have been discovered in Texas, a confirmed case of the Brazil variant has not been detected in the state.
Following the Centers for Disease Control's announcement on January 25 that the Brazil variant was detected in the United States for the first time, state experts warned that the chances are high it's here too.
Virus mutations sound scary, especially when it’s in the context of COVID-19. So, it’s important to get the facts right. Our Verify team researched the claim that COVID-19 variants can cause more severe reactions and found that while the CDC shows on its website that a variant has the “ability to cause either milder or more severe disease in people....there is no evidence that these recently identified SARS-CoV-2 variants cause more severe disease than earlier ones.”