1st case of South Africa coronavirus variant confirmed in Nevada

A new, more contagious coronavirus strain first discovered in South Africa has traveled to Nevada.

The first known Nevada case of the B.1.351 variant, in a man in his 40s who recently traveled to South Africa, was detected by the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in a testing sample collected in Reno.

“We’re still learning a lot about these mutations of COVID-19 and it’s imperative that residents be aware of these new strains,” Kevin Dick, the district health officer for Washoe County, was quoted as saying in a news release. “As we see our COVID-19 positivity rate and cases per day trend downward, it’s important to not lower our guard.”

The man was not infectious when he travelled, health officials said during an online briefing. No additional cases have been identified so far among the man’s close contacts in Nevada.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 19 confirmed cases of this variant in 10 states. There is no evidence that the variant makes COVID-19 more deadly, but there is some evidence that it could affect how “vaccine neutralizing antibodies perform,” which means that current vaccines may become less effective.

The state laboratory, located at the University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine, is doing genetic sequencing on all positive results generated at its lab and on a sampling of positives from labs at the Southern Nevada Health District and University Medical Center. It also acts to confirm suspected positives from additional labs, lab director Mark Pandori said in an email.

The intent, Pandori said, is to “cast a wide and sensitive net” to detect variants early and potentially limit their spread.

B.1.351 variant was first reported in the U.S. on Jan. 28, when two cases were identified in South Carolina, the Associated Press reported. The cases were not connected and were discovered in adults in different regions of the state.

Nevada has previously confirmed the presence in Clark County of another more-contagious variant originally discovered in the United Kingdom.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported on Feb. 11 that it has now identified seven cases of the U.K. variant in the county.

The first six cases of the U.K. variant found in Clark County were connected, but the seventh case involved an unrelated man in his 30s, the health district said.

University of Nevada Las Vegas researcher Edwin Oh told the Review-Journal last week that findings from wastewater testing also suggest that the U.K. variant is circulating in Southern Nevada.

Oh, an associate professor at UNLV who is conducting research on sewage to detect coronavirus variants, said it is “highly probable” that Southern Nevada has more cases of the U.K variant than have been reported.

According to data from the CDC last updated Tuesday, there have been 1,277 reported cases of the U.K. variant, also called the B.1.1.7 variant, in 42 states.

Oh said data indicates that COVID-19 vaccines are still effective against the U.K. variant.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.