First Case Of Brazil COVID-19 Variant Found In Santa Clara County

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County officials confirmed the county has its first case of the P.1 variant, which was first identified in Brazil. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it is the first such case detected in the Bay Area and the sixth in California.

In a news briefing on Thursday, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county’s testing and vaccine officer, said that the case was discovered this week in a resident who had returned from an out-of-state trip and had their specimen randomly tested for genomic sequencing. The county also has 19 confirmed cases of the U.K. variant and two confirmed cases of the South African variant.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the P.1 variant raises concerns because of a potential increase in transmissibility or even re-infection of people who had already tested positive for COVID-19. Experts believe that vaccines are less effective against the variant.

Fenstersheib underscored the importance of vaccinating as much of the population as possible before variants spread, and he warned that people continue to refrain from traveling.

“We want to really recommend people not travel,” Fenstersheib said. “We strongly, strongly discourage travel for this very reason. Going out into other parts of this country or parts of the globe, there is a chance of getting exposed and perhaps bringing back one of those variants that we already have here or others that are circulating.”