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SALT LAKE CITY — One case of the Brazilian COVID-19 variant has been detected in Utah, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Utah Department of Health spokesperson confirmed Monday that one case of the variant has been found in the state. The Brazilian variant of the disease is also known as the P.1 variant, and a total of 54 cases of that variant have been reported in the U.S. so far, according to the CDC.
Arizona is currently the only state bordering Utah that has also detected the P.1 variant, with four cases. Florida currently has 21 cases of the P.1 variant, the most of any U.S. state, according to the CDC.
There have been 150 cases of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant, which originated in the United Kingdom, detected in Utah so far, according to the CDC. That variant was first detected in Salt Lake County in January. There are currently 6,390 confirmed cases of the U.K. variant in the U.S. so far, the CDC reports.
No cases of the B.1.351 variant, which originated in South Africa, have been detected in Utah so far. There are 194 cases of the South African variant in the U.S. as of Monday, according to the CDC.
Though the CDC has reported only one case of the P.1 variant in Utah, it is possible there are already many more unconfirmed cases of the variant.
Public health laboratories conduct whole genome sequencing on a limited selection of COVID-19 samples taken from PCR tests to confirm variant cases, according to the Utah Department of Health. The sequencing process takes a long time, so there is typically a delay in reporting variant cases.
Dr. Kelly Oakeson, chief scientist for bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing at The Utah Public Health Laboratory, said in January when the U.K. variant was detected in Utah that he believed it was likely more widespread in the state than just one case.
"We're not sequencing every single positive sample, so we're only sequencing about 10% — in some months a little fewer than that," Oakeson said. "So if we detected this quickly since we were looking for it, it indicates to us that it's probably more widespread than just this one individual."
COVID-19 vaccines have shown mixed, but generally successful, results against the variants of the virus.
A study of the Pfizer vaccine released earlier this month showed strong protection of the Brazil and U.K. variants of the virus, while protection against the South African variant was "robust but lower," according to the study.
Utah Department of Health state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn said earlier this month that there are ways beyond vaccinations to protect Utahns against variants of the virus.
"It's so important that when the vaccine is available to you, you get it," Dunn said on March 11. "Also, we know how to protect ourselves against the variants, right? Masks work. Physical distancing works. Staying at home when you're ill — that all works. So let's keep using those tools until we all get vaccinated."
