The first case in California of the Brazilian version COVID-19 found in San Bernardino County

The first case in California of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in Brazil earlier this year was detected in San Bernardino over the weekend, county officials said.

The California Department of Public Health alerted the county to the case Saturday after it was detected in a positive test sample collected on March 2, the San Bernardino County public intelligence officer said in a statement.

Health officials are now investigating how the resident, a 40-year-old man, could have been exposed to the variant. The man – who was not vaccinated – is isolating himself at home, according to officials.

“We are taking immediate and aggressive action to contact the virus for tracing and content, and we are working with CDPH to expand the entire genomic sequencing to identify more cases,” said county health officer Dr. Michael S. Sequeira. “Slowing the spread of the disease and minimizing the spread of all variants is possible with contact tracking, strategic quarantine with masking and social distancing and, most importantly, vaccination.”

The “Brazilian” variant P.1 is considered to be more contagious than the most common strain of the virus.