Pierce County sees its first case of new, more contagious COVID-19 strain
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on Sunday announced that the new, more contagious strain of COVID-19 had been detected in Pierce County.
The strain, known as the B.1.1.7 variant, is also called the UK variant because the strain was first discovered in the United Kingdom.
This variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants, according to health officials.
So far, only one case of the new variant has been found in Pierce County. On Saturday, state officials announced that the first two cases of the variant in Washington state had been detected in Snohomish County.
The Pierce County individual was tested the second week of January, according to Stephanie Dunkel, assistant division director for communicable disease with the health department, speaking at a Sunday afternoon news conference about the case.
The individual had mild symptoms and has completed their isolation period. There was no specific travel link, such as going out of state, tied to the case, according to Dunkel.
However, “We do know that the individual may have been at a gathering or social gathering,” she added.
Social gatherings have been a predominant source of recent spread, according to TPCHD Health Director Dr. Anthony Chen at the Sunday news conference.
He said that the department was first notified Saturday evening from its state health partners of the detected case in the county.
He further noted the department has completed case and contact investigation for the case.
“We expected that the first case of a variant would at some point show up in Pierce County, and we’re prepared for this,” he said. “I think the good news for the public to know is that the steps we need to take are no different than what we have already asked everyone to do.”
He said actions such as double-masking are not necessary for now, but there was no harm in doing so for added protection.
“The bad news is that the variant seems to spread more easily from person to person,” he added. “But more good news is that the CDC shows that there’s no evidence that the variant causes more severe disease of COVID-19, or any increased chance of death. But again, they may produce more cases and become more predominant as time goes by.”
He said the state and federal health officials “have been conducting additional surveillance testing on COVID samples to identify cases with variant strains.”
The CDC expects the B.1.1.7 strain to become the predominant strain in the U.S. by March, according to the local health department noted in its Sunday release.
Chen said the department was recommending everyone continue to follow the standard pandemic guidelines: maintain physical distance, avoid large gatherings, wash hands frequently, wear masks and limit travel.
“The harder we try now, the better off we are because these mutations such as what we’re seeing occur as people get infected, and it’s the viruses producing more copies of itself. So if we can cut off the transmission, or reduce the transmission, the likelihood that there’ll be more mutations, or that this particular mutation spreads is going to be lower.”
“Everyone needs to double down on their efforts,” he added.
This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 2:30 PM.
