The news comes as President Joe Biden reinstates bans on coronavirus travel to most non-U.S. citizens from several countries.
The United States has reported its first known case of the COVID-19 variant first detected in Brazil.
The Minnesota Department of Health confirmed the case Monday, the same day President Joe Biden extended coronavirus restrictions because most citizens who were not from the United States and who recently traveled to Brazil, South Africa and several European countries could not enter the US.
The variant of the new coronavirus known as P1 was detected in a specimen of a Minnesota resident with a recent history of travel to Brazil, the state health department said in a statement.
The agency said it marks the first documented instance of the P1 variant in the U.S.
Although the so-called “variant of Brazil” is believed to be more transmissible than the initial strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, it is not known whether the disease it causes is more serious.
Biden has promised to launch a fierce fight against COVID-19 in the US, which has recorded the most cases and deaths related to coronavirus in the world.
“With the worsening of the pandemic and the more contagious variants spreading, it is not the time to remove restrictions on international travel,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a briefing earlier of the day on renewed travel restrictions.
The United States has reported more than 25 million infections, about a quarter of the world’s cases, as well as more than 420,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned over the weekend that coronavirus-related deaths in the United States could exceed 500,000 next month.
The CDC and the U.S. Department of State also announced that as of Tuesday, all travelers entering the United States will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test before boarding their flights. This includes US and foreign citizens.
“The Department and the CDC continue to strongly recommend U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad and postpone all non-essential travel,” they said in a statement Monday.