South African COVID strain detected in county
The COVID-19 variant that was first identified in South Africa has now been detected in Shelby County, Shelby County Health Officer Dr. Bruce Randolph told county commissioners on Monday afternoon.
It marks at least the third virus
variant detected here.
Local authorities had previously identified two other variants of the virus here: the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, dubbed the “UK variant” and the P2 variant or “Brazilian variant.”
The case of the South African variant involved travel to Colorado, Randolph said.
The health department released a statement from health department Deputy Administrator David Sweat clarifying what happened.
“The person whose test specimen sequenced out with the South African strain variant had no travel history outside of Shelby County,” Sweat said in the statement.
“She did, however, have a close contact who traveled to Colorado and Washington State, and then came to visit the Shelby County resident. That person had COVID-19 and is believed to be the source case.”
Randolph said the South African variant does not appear to be spreading locally.
Lengthy delay between positive COVID-19 test, lab ID of variant
Several weeks passed between the time that the patient tested positive for COVID-19 and the time a lab at University of Tennessee Health Science Center concluded the patient had the the South African variant.
The positive test came Jan. 24, Randolph said, and the laboratory flagged the South African variant just a few days ago.
“So quite a bit of time has passed,” he said.
Several factors may account for the delay, said Dr. Jon Mccullers, the dean of clinical affairs at University of Tennessee Health Science Center. They include the fact that the screening process for variants is new, that the sequencing takes some time, and that bad weather likely disrupted the process last week.
So does the delay mean the South African variant escaped into the community?
“We haven't seen more (cases of the South African variant) yet,” Mccullers said.
“So maybe they did a good job quarantining and it didn't get out further past the family. Maybe there's some more cases out there, we haven't identified yet. It's impossible to tell until we start to see more cases.”
He said the variant viruses can complicate the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All of these have the mutation that makes them more transmissible. So all of them, we expect to spread more easily,” he said.
“All of them, I'm worried about seeing another surge if they begin to spread locally.”
He also said the Brazilian and South African variants also have a mutation that means that existing vaccines don't work quite as well against them.
He said techniques such as maskwearing, social distancing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine will work just as well for the variants as for the original version of COVID-19.
“So we need to keep doing that, first of all, just to keep the numbers down and keep feeding the virus down. And then we also can do a little bit more targeted surveillance,” he said.
For instance, if one person at a business tests positives, health officials could test everyone who works there, he said.
“And of course, it's a race to get everybody vaccinated. Can we get everybody vaccinated or a significant proportion before this becomes a dominant variant and causes a lot more trouble?”
Increasingly robust vaccination plan
Winter weather last week disrupted vaccinations, but Randolph said vaccinations are stepping back up.
“We're planning to provide 1,000 doses of vaccine to the Appling location six days a week,” he said, referring to the site at 2355 Appling City Cove.
“The commodity food supplement program, we will offer 150 doses on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” he said, referring to a site on South Bellevue.
“The Germantown location will offer 1000 doses per day,” he said, referring to the Germantown Baptist Church site.
“Greater Imani church (in Raleigh) will offer 500 doses a day,” he said.
“Southwest Tennessee Community College (in Whitehaven), 500 doses. Pipkin Building (in Midtown) 500 doses.”
“And we also have plans of having some popup sites. One is at the Anointed Temple of Praise,” he said, adding that this site in southeast Shelby County would offer 500 doses in one day. “And at (Cane Creek Missionary Baptist Church) on Saturdays, we will offer 500 doses,” he said, referring to a site on Elvis Presley Boulevard.
Information on signups is available online at www.shelby.community. People may also call 901-222-7468.
Private organizations including Walmart stores are also distributing shots.
Separately, officials have announced plans to administer first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to 11,000 teachers by the end of the first week in March. Those doses are being distributed in coordination with the school system.