JACKSON, Wyo. — The Teton County Health Department (TCHD) says that a South African variant of COVID-19 has been identified in a Teton County resident.
A COVID-19 test collected in Teton County in January 2021 has been genotyped and identified as the COVID-19 variant B.1.351, which was first identified in South Africa in late 2020.
The person contracted COVID-19 in Teton County and did not have any history of travel. The health department says that the COVID-19 variant allows COVID-19 to spread more easily from person to person.
“Like many other viruses, mutations to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are expected over time,” TCHD said in a press release. “In addition to this case, Teton County has identified 8 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the United Kingdom. Genetic sequencing is not available for every COVID positive sample, making it difficult to have an accurate count of variant cases.”
The variant contains multiple mutations including several within the spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and has received more attention due to the increased spread in areas where it has been detected.
Teton District Health Officer Travis Riddell, MD, MPH, said, “We are encouraging community members to continue to test for COVID-19 especially if they are sick. Testing is still our best mechanism to identify people who test positive for COVID-19 and to quickly work to determine their close contracts so that we can reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community. We are working to vaccinate as many members of our community as possible before more cases of the COVID -19 variants are detected and these variants become more widespread.”
