Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, received the Modern COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, while health officials try to manipulate fears about a new highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.
Reports of the new virus variant in England led to a pre-Christmas shutdown and caused dozens of countries to close their borders to UK travelers this week, although the European Union on Tuesday recommended members withdraw their closures to allow some travel.
But the US government has no intention of imposing COVID-19 projections on passengers traveling from the UK, people informed the Reuters news agency of the decision.
Members of the White House coronavirus task force backed the need for negative pre-flight tests after a meeting Monday, but the Trump administration has decided not to take any action, for now, the people.
A medical worker collects a swab sample at the COVID-19 test center at Duesseldorf airport, as EU countries impose a ban on travel from the UK following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19 ) [Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters]
Canada is implementing improved measures to examine travelers from the UK, including those arriving from other countries, its public safety minister said on Tuesday.
The three airlines operating flights from London to John F Kennedy International Airport – British Airways, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic – voluntarily agreed to a request from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, which only allowed passengers to fly. that they gave negative.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday ordered travelers arriving from the United Kingdom, South Africa or other “countries with a new potentially more contagious COVID-19 variation” to quarantine them for 14 days later. to reach its state.
“This common sense measure will protect Washingtonians in our fight against COVID-19,” Inslee said on Twitter.
The death toll in the US rises from 320,000
The news of the coronavirus mutation comes as the United States faces an increase in new infections that overwhelm hospitals in some states. The death toll in the United States rose from 320,000 on Tuesday, a day after the total number of infections rose to 18 million, according to a Johns Hopkins University count.
Some U.S. health officials on Tuesday tried to allay fears about the new variation in the virus, saying it should be controlled, but its discovery should not be a cause for despair.
U.S. Secretary of Health Alex Azar told Fox News on Tuesday that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which received U.S. emergency use permits this month, should be effective in preventing disease by the recently discovered variant of the virus. He also said it did not appear to have different physical effects on people.
Moderna and BioNTech, who worked with Pfizer Inc. to develop their vaccine, are fighting to test their shots against the variant, but have expressed confidence in them.
“Scientifically it is very likely that the immune response of this vaccine can also deal with this variant of the virus,” Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech, told reporters.
More than 600,000 Americans, mostly health workers, had received the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some states began vaccinating long-term care center residents Monday.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert who received the Modern vaccine on camera on Tuesday, said surveillance is needed to control the spread of the British variant, but officials should not overreact.
“Travel bans are really draconian things,” Fauci told ABC News.
Along with Fauci, Azar and the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, rolled up their sleeves for the filming of Moderna on live television this Tuesday.