New COVID-19 strain found in Kansas City area patient, Missouri health officials say
A Kansas City area resident has become the first person in Missouri confirmed to have contracted an emerging COVID-19 variant that has spread across 34 other states, state public health officials said Tuesday.
The new strain, known as the South African variant, was found in an adult person living somewhere in Jackson County, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said. Other details were not shared in an effort to “protect the privacy of the individual,” the state’s public health agency said.
Health officials are uncertain whether the strain causes more serious illness or spreads faster than others. The strain is more resistant to vaccination, public health officials say, though vaccinations continue to be widely encouraged.
In a statement Tuesday, Randall Williams, the director of Missouri’s public health department, said “prevention measures” should be put in place as more positive cases of the COVID-19 variants are identified. And people should still consider getting vaccinated when they are able, Williams said.
“The vaccines that are currently available in the United States appear to be effective against these variant viruses,” Williams said.
The South African variant was first discovered in December and cases in the U.S. were first reported in January. Since then, there have been 386 confirmed cases of the new strain across 34 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The news comes a few days after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced the same strain had appeared in southwestern Kansas. Public health officials were investigating how a person in rural Finney County fell ill with the variant.
