Coronavirus Texas: COVID-19 variants from New York, California and Brazil detected in the Houston Methodist genome study

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – The Houston area now faces at least five different variants of COVID-19 with the addition of three from New York, Brazil and California.

The results of the study published Thursday by the Houston Methodist team of infectious diseases showed that three additional variants have been detected among the 20,453 coronavirus genomes in the area examined since the start of the pandemic.

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The Houston Methodist study is the first to identify the three new variants in the Houston area.

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Variants of the United Kingdom and South Africa have already been confirmed by health officials at the city and county level, who have described them as the most contagious.

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The results come from the nationwide leading genome sequencing study of the hospital system. The Methodist team processes up to 1,700 samples a week. All four variants were detected in the most recent genome groups, the hospital reported to ABC13.

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