RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ/VDH Release) - The Virginia Department of Health says the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.351 has been identified in a sample from an adult resident of the Central Region of Virginia; the patient had no history of travel during the exposure period.
The B.1.351 variant, which first emerged in South Africa in late 2020, is associated with increased person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, according to VDH, which says there is no evidence infections with this variant cause more severe disease.
To date, the B.1.351 variant has been identified in 19 other U.S. states or jurisdictions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working with state public health, academic, and commercial laboratories to increase domestic strain surveillance capacity to sequence thousands of specimens every week, according to VDH. That has expanded the ability to detect and characterize emerging viral variants in the United States.
C0DC notified Virginia of the case that was identified through these efforts at a commercial laboratory. With the identification of this case in the Central Region, Virginia has now identified a total of 11 cases of the B.1.351 variant and 31 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom. With the combined state and national surveillance efforts, it is likely that additional cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern will be identified, according to VDH.
For more information about COVID-19 variants, visit the VDH COVID-19 Testing website and the CDC New COVID-19 Variants website.
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