SALT LAKE CITY – A case of the Brazilian variant COVID-19 has been detected in Utah, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Utah Department of Health spokesman confirmed Monday that a case of the variant has been found in the state. The Brazilian variant of the disease is also known as variant P.1 and, to date, a total of 54 cases of this variant have been reported in the United States, according to the CDC.
Arizona is currently the only state bordering Utah that has also detected the P.1 variant, with four cases. Florida currently has 21 cases of variant P.1, most of any state in the United States, according to the CDC.
According to the CDC, there have been 150 cases of COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, which originated in the United Kingdom, detected in Utah. This variant was first detected in Salt Lake County in January. There are currently 6,390 confirmed cases of the UK variant in the United States, according to CDC.
To date, no case of variant B.1.351, native to South Africa, has been detected in Utah. According to the CDC, there are 194 cases of the South African variant in the US as of Monday.
Although CDC has only reported one case of variant P.1 in Utah, there may already be many more unconfirmed cases of variant.
According to the Utah Department of Health, public health laboratories perform complete genome sequencing on a limited selection of COVID-19 samples extracted from PCR tests to confirm various cases. The sequencing process takes a long time, so there is usually a delay in reporting various cases.
Kelly Oakeson, chief scientist of bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing at the Utah Public Health Laboratory, said in January when the UK variant was detected in Utah she believed was probably more widespread in the state than a only case.
“We’re not sequencing all the positive samples, so we’re only sequencing about 10%, in a few months a little less than that,” Oakeson said. “So if we detect it quickly since we’ve been looking for it, it tells us it’s probably more widespread than just this individual.”
COVID-19 vaccines have shown mixed, but generally successful, results against virus variants.
A study of the Pfizer vaccine published earlier this month showed strong protection against virus variants in Brazil and the United Kingdom, while protection against the South African variant was “robust but inferior,” according to the study.
Utah State Department of Health state epidemiologist Angela Dunn said earlier this month that there are ways beyond vaccinations to protect Utahns against virus variants.
“It’s so important that when the vaccine is available to you, you get it,” Dunn said March 11th. “We also know how to protect ourselves against variants, right? Masks work. Physical distancing works. You’re sick, everything works. So we keep using these tools until we all get vaccinated.”