Maryland Governor Larry Hogan will hold a press conference on Nov. 17 to address COVID-19 issues in Annapolis, MD.
Bill O’Leary | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Maryland has reported a case of the new highly transmissible Covid-19 variant first found in South Africa, marking the third case discovered in the US, Governor Larry Hogan announced on Saturday.
The case concerns an adult resident living in the Baltimore area with no history of international travel, Maryland health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed.
“We strongly encourage Marylanders to use extra caution to limit the additional risk of transmission associated with this variant,” Hogan said. “Please continue to apply standard public health and safety precautions, including wearing a mask, washing hands regularly, and keeping a physical distance.”
The first two US cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, were identified in South Carolina on Jan. 28. Other variants found in the US are from Great Britain and Brazil.
The variants do not appear to cause greater disease or increased risk of death, but are believed to be highly contagious. Health officials are particularly concerned about the B.1.351 variant because preliminary research suggests that vaccines may be less effective at fighting it.
President Joe Biden last week signed a travel ban on most non-US citizens entering the country who were recently in South Africa, and has reinstated travel restrictions for non-US citizens from the UK and Brazil.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the virus has infected more than 25.9 million people and killed at least 436,000 people in the US since the start of the pandemic.