Medical staff member Christina Mathers attends a patient, who is unconscious, as she holds the patient’s hand in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on December 21, 2020 in and Houston, Texas.
Rach Nakamura | Getty Images
The new coronavirus strain first discovered in the United Kingdom could be circulating in the United States without warning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
Although the variant has not yet been discovered in the U.S., the CDC noted that scientists have not classified the genetic coding for many Covid-19 diseases here. The CDC said that “viruses have only been traced from about 51,000 of the 17 million U.S. cases,” so the new strain may have ignored a message.
“Continued travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high frequency of this change among the UK’s prevalent diseases, will increase the likelihood of their introduction,” CDC said in a statement. that the small number of U.S. diseases that have been followed, the variant could be in the United States undetected. “
The new version is currently referred to as “SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01,” CDC said. It became common throughout the south-east of England in November and is reported to make up 60% of recent infections in London, the group said. CDC said it does not know why a new strain of the virus appeared, but it could be “by chance only.”
“On the other hand, it may show up because it’s more apt to spread in humans,” CDC said. “This rapid shift from a rare strain to a common strain has alarmed scientists in the UK, who are making a critical assessment of the characteristics of the variable type and the disease it causes. cause. “
The new coronavirus “moves regularly,” CDC noted, but most shots are unimportant. The significance of the new strain first discovered in the UK has not yet been confirmed, but CDC noted that, based on early data from the UK, the new strain “could be shifted faster than other circulating strains. “
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