A new, highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first discovered in Britain could become the dominant variant in the United States by March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is thought to be twice as contagious as the current version of the virus that is spreading in the United States. So far, 76 people from ten US states have been infected with the British variant.
The CDC said in its weekly magazine that its rapid spread would increase the burden on health resources at a time when infections were on the rise, further reducing strained healthcare resources. report on death and illness.
The highly contagious variant also increases the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to bring about protective herd immunity to control the pandemic, the CDC said.
“The increased portability of the B.1.1.7 variant justifies strict implementation of public health strategies to reduce the transmission and reduce the potential impact of B.1.1.7, to buy critical time to cover the vaccination,” he said. U.S. health officials wrote.
The variant, which includes several genetic changes, makes the virus more capable of being transmitted from person to person. It is not believed that the changes could cause more serious illnesses, but the higher transmission rate will mean more cases and more deaths, the CDC said.
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