Healthcare workers are preparing vaccines against Pfizer coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, on January 7, 2021.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters
According to a document obtained by NBC News, the White House coronavirus working group said there could be a new variant of the virus that evolved in the United States and is driving the spread.
The new variant, in addition to the UK variant, is already spreading to communities and may be 50% more transmissible, according to the report issued to states on January 3rd.
According to the report, the working group said the recent rise in cases has been almost double that seen in the spring and summer season, according to the report. The United States records at least 228,400 new cases of Covid-19 and at least 2,760 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States reported its deadliest day on Thursday with more than 4,000 dead.
“This acceleration suggests that there may be a U.S. variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading to our communities and may be 50% more transmissible,” he said. report. “Aggressive mitigation should be used to match a more aggressive virus; without a uniform implementation of effective (two- or three-layer, tight-fitting masking) and strict social distancing, epidemics could quickly worsen as that these variants propagate and become predominant “.
Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately return CNBC’s requests for comment.
Few details about the new American strain were provided in the report, including the time it takes. In recent weeks, the United States has expanded genomic sequences to try to detect other strains.
Public health officials were already worried about the arrival of a new strain of the virus found in the UK, known as B.1.1.7.
The CDC has identified at least 52 cases of Covid-19 with the B.1.1.7 mutation in the U.S., according to data posted on the agency’s website last Thursday. However, the CDC warns that their numbers “do not represent the total number of B.1.1.7 lineage cases that may be circulating in the United States” and do not match the figures reported by local officials.
So far, CDC only shows California, Florida, New York, Colorado and Georgia with cases of variant B.1.1.7, but other states such as Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas announced the arrival of the strain in their states on Thursday.
Michael Osterholm, a member of President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 advisory committee, said Tuesday that the United States is likely to see more new variants of the virus emerge.
Osterholm, epidemiologist i The director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said in an interview with CNBC that the strain that was discovered in the UK is “a very big concern”.
“And it’s the first of those that will probably be some of those strains that are emerging as we are at this time of the pandemic,” he added.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates again.