DC Confirms Cases of South African, UK Coronavirus Variants

WASHINGTON, DC — Variants of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom and South Africa have been confirmed for the first time in four patients in Washington, D.C., the District’s health director said Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention informed D.C. officials about the detection of the variants, Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the District of Columbia Department of Health said at a news conference.

According to Nesbitt, three of the cases are for the variant first found in the U.K. and one case if for the variant found in South Africa.

The health department is investigating the cases and does not know at this time whether the cases were due to travel or community spread.

The arrival of the variants in the District “is not surprising,” given the city’s porous borders and the fact that they’ve been seen in Maryland and Virginia, Nesbitt said. The arrival of the variants is another opportunity “to remind us to be very cautious about our behavior and our patterns here in the National Capital Region,” she said.

The variants have not been shown to be more deadly than other strains of the virus. But they are far more transmissible, according to experts.

Virginia has reported at least four cases of the U.K. variant in the Northern region and one case of the South African variant in the eastern portion of the state. Last Friday, the Virginia Department of Health confirmed the first case of the B.1.351 variant, first identified in late 2020 in South Africa, in eastern Virginia.

The U.S. has reported at least 930 cases of the U.K. variant and at least nine cases of the South African variant, according to the CDC.

On Thursday, the District's Department of Health reported 185 new cases of the coronavirus. Eight new COVID-19-related deaths were reported, increasing the total number of deaths to 973.

At Thursday's news conference, D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Director Chris Rodriguez said the District is getting more vaccine doses.

“Next week’s vaccine allotment is up approximately 50 percent from two weeks ago,” Rodriguez said. “At this pace, we do expect to have approximately 40 percent of our seniors vaccinated by the end of this week, and about 70 percent of seniors vaccinated by the end of this month.”