WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th January, 2021) The UK variant of the coronavirus is not showing any signs of dominating the spread of the infection in the United States yet, despite its fast-transmissible nature, US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday.
"There are two types of mutants [of the virus] that have occurred in the United Kingdom, and one is now really dominating the spread of infection there," Fauci told a live-streamed briefing. "The Brits have looked at it carefully. We are now in the process of also examining it in the United States. But there have been individual reports in it doesn't dominate the scene in the United States."
Four US states - New York, Georgia, California and Colorado� have so far detected cases of the UK variant of the coronavirus strain known as the B.1.1.7.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the UK coronavirus variant spreads more easily and quickly than other COVID strains.
More than 40 countries also have banned UK arrivals due to concerns about the new COVID variant, although the United States itself has not imposed such measures.
The United States has been the country hardest hit by the coronavirus since its global outbreak this year, with more than 21 million positive cases logged since January and nearly 360,000 deaths related to the virus. After a respite in the summer to early fall period, infections have started surging again, pushing hospitalization up to daily record highs of above 100,000 since late November.
