That highly contagious Covid variant first seen in the UK has made it's way to Texas.
It's infected a Harris County man. Harris County judge Lina Hidalgo says he did not report any known travel history.
"For all we know it's something like the tip of the iceberg. It's the first evidence that it is here, but more likely than not, we can be pretty certain that it has been here."
The man, who is between 30 and 40 is in isolation and his contacts are being traced. The variant is said to be up to 70% more transmissible.
Hidalgo says "this variant has the potential to throw jet fuel on an already dangerous situation. It's something of a turbo charged version on the virus in the sense that it's a lot more contagious."
She says the more cases we see, the more people will be hospitalized and the more people will die.
"What folks need to do is double down on not having gatherings with people you don't share a household with. We should all assume it's not the first case of this variant in Harris County, it's the first one that we know of."
She says hospital numbers in Harris County are "dire." "
We're dealing with a dual-threat, with the high numbers from Christmas and New Years and now a triple threat due to the confirmation of this variant." She encourages anyone who has access to the vaccine get the shot.
She says "we've flattened the curve before, we have to flatten it again. It might be harder this time because of the type of strain we're facing. Get tested and avoid those contacts. Try to avoid any kind of gathering."
The variant is not believed to make a person more sick. It's also thought it can be prevented with the current Covid-19 vaccines.
The variant has been found in California, Florida, Colorado, Georgia and New York.