As new Covid-19 cases in Texas begin to rise, a hospital in Houston found its first case of the Lambda variant of the coronavirus.
The case at Houston Methodist was confirmed on Monday, July 19, and is the first known case of this variant in the United States, ABC News reported.
The Lambda variant was first reported in Peru in December 2020 and has been labeled as a "variant of interest" by the World Health Organization.
It's unclear if the Lambda variant is more dangerous than Delta.
“I know there’s great interest in Lambda, but I think people really need to be focused on Delta. Most importantly, regardless of the variant, our best defense against all these variants is vaccination," Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of Diagnostic Microbiology at Houston Methodist told ABC.
The vaccines approved for use in the U.S. have been shown to be effective against Delta and other variants, USA Today reported. More research needs to be done into just how effective the current vaccines are against Lambda.
So far, Delta is more widespread than Lambda. The Delta variant accounts for 83% of the Covid-19 cases in the U.S.