MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County Health Department officials commended the University of Memphis after a UK strain cluster of the COVID-19 virus was detected there.
Officials say various strains of the virus are becoming more frequent in the Memphis area.
David Sweat with the Shelby County Health Department says researchers have detected between 50 and 60 total variant strains. Of those, 80% were the UK variant. The Mexican, South African and Brazilian strains were also detected.
Sweat says recently more people and places have teamed up to help with the sequencing process, making the potential to detect a mutation higher.
Of all the cases sequenced, out about 10% have a variant strain.
Dr. Manoj Jain with the COVID-19 task force says 30 samples were recently examined at Poplar Healthcare. Of that group, 15 were the UK variant, 2 Mexican strain.
“But we have to keep in mind that these were selected samples. Either we were suspicious because they had certain markers or maybe they had been in clusters,” Jain said.
But while the number of variants remains relatively low, we have to look to the future.
“It’s not like the variant strains are the dominant strains right now,” Sweat said. “But that’s what we’re worried about right now, because if we get to a point where half or more of the strains circulating in the community are variant strains, that’s when you’re at a high risk to have your case numbers explode again.”
That’s why health experts say testing is so important, so they can detect the variant.
We reached out to the university for a comment but have not heard back.