Health officials report first case of COVID Brazilian strain in St. Clair County
Health officials announced the first case of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 in St. Clair County during Friday’s daily briefing.
St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Assistant Director Bryan Whitaker said additional information will be available on the St. Clair County Health Department’s page Friday night.
“The health department will have more information on their Facebook page later today about the different variants and what those strains are,” Whitaker said. “But they emphasize that’s why vaccination is so important — to prevent this virus from morphing into other variants that could maybe not be susceptible to the vaccination.”
Added St. Clair County EMA Director Herb Simmons, “We wanted to get that information out to you. We are being transparent, being informational. As Bryan said, the health department is staying on top of these types of developments every day. We are in communication with them and will continue to do that.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the so-called Brazilian variant of COVID is more infectious and deadly than earlier strains of coronavirus seen early in the pandemic. But each of the available vaccines has been effective in preventing serious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. One concern that remains is how adept the strain may be in reinfecting recovered COVID patients, according to the CDC.
Whitaker also noted the UK variant was first announced in St. Clair County a few weeks ago and added the health department reported additional cases Friday. In turn, Simmons stressed the importance of getting tested.
“Testing is still vitally important,” Simmons said. “Even if you’ve got those days where you feel a little ill, go up and get tested. It’s free. It’s still at the mall. There’s no reason why not to.”
Simmons also urged people to get vaccinated. More specifically, he encouraged vaccinated individuals to encourage friends or family members who have eschewed getting the vaccine to do so.
“With these new variants coming up here in the county, the last thing we want to do is go backwards,” he said. “Our numbers look great. We’re on target to open the entire state up June 11. That’s the date we’ve got marked on the calendar to where we can get back to whatever the new normal is going to be. But we need everybody’s help. We’ve got everything going in the right direction.
“The light at the end of that tunnel we’ve talked about for so long is brighter now than it ever has been. So we definitely do not want to go backwards.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 4:54 PM.