COVID-19 ‘mu’ variant found in Dallas County
A new variant of COVID-19 has been found in Dallas County.
DALLAS – A new variant of COVID-19 has been found in Dallas County.
Tests found five cases of the COVID-19-mu variant, officials said.
“At this point it is still in the tentative category, but we are certainly watching it,” said Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services.
Nationwide, there are around 2,400 cases in 49 states, excluding Nebraska.
Huang echoes the World Health Organization experts who say that ‘mu’ is an “interesting variant” but has not yet met the criteria for a “worrying variant”.
“It is still too early to know exactly how well the vaccines will work against this variant. However, initial tests so far show that some of the protection provided by the Pfizer vaccine is still effective,” said Huang.
The cases were documented by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
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It is unclear whether the people in Dallas County were previously vaccinated with the Mu variant. The diffusion in the community is evident as transmission through travel has been ruled out in some cases.
“When I talk to the infectious disease doctors, they discuss it,” said Dr. Stephen Love, DFW Hospital Council.
The council is discussing the mu variant in hopes of staying one step ahead, which could become another problem for medical facilities trying to deal with the already overworked staff and lack of intensive care beds due to the delta variant.
“It took us a while to get here so it’s clearly a variant we’re interested in. I’m not going to say we’re totally worried but we don’t know where it will go at this point.” said Love.
Since the incidence of the mu variant is still low, the speed at which it could spread is another feature to look out for.
“The Delta variant very quickly became the predominant variety that is in circulation. At this point in time, the Mu variant is still very rare,” said Huang.
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