DALLAS (Talk1370.com) -- Dallas County officials on Saturday confirmed the first local case of a COVID-19 variant first seen in the United Kingdom, the third such case to be identified in the state.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins identified the patient as a Dallas man in his 20s, with no recent travel outside of the United States.
"The emergence of strain B.1.1.7, while inevitable given the mobility of the modern world and the fact that we are a major transportation hub, means that there is a strain that is 70% more contagious in our community and it will grow quickly," Jenkins said.
Two other cases of the new strain have been identified in Harris County and in Nueces County.
"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.
As far as whether the new variant has made its way to Central Texas, local health officials said earlier this week it's almost a certainty. “It’s implausible to think that it’s not here in Travis County,” Dr. Mark Escott said during Austin Public Health's weekly question and answer session with local media. "If we’re seeing it in the state, it’s also here. It’s very likely, almost certainly, contributing to the spread that we’re seeing.”