The news comes as President Joe Biden reinstates the travel ban on the coronavirus for most non-US citizens from multiple countries.
The United States 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 that President Joe Biden extended coronavirus restrictions, which most non-US citizens who have recently traveled to Brazil, South Africa and several European countries are not allowed to enter the United States not.
The variant of the new coronavirus known as P1 was detected in a sample of a Minnesota resident with a recent travel history to Brazil, the health department said in a statement.
The agency said it was the first documented example of the P1 variant in the US.
Although the so-called “Brazil variant” is more transmissible than the initial strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, it is not known whether the disease that causes it is more serious.
Biden has vowed to tackle a fierce battle against COVID-19 in the US, which has recorded the most cases and deaths associated with coronavirus in the world.
“With the worsening pandemic and more contagious variants, this is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a newsletter earlier in the day about the renewed travel restrictions.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, the U.S. has registered more than 25 million infections – about a quarter of the global cases – as well as more than 420,000 deaths since the pandemic.
The new head of the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) warned over the weekend that coronavirus-related deaths in the US could exceed 500,000 by next month.
The CDC and the U.S. State Department have also announced that all travelers entering the U.S. must show a negative COVID-19 test from Tuesday before boarding their flight. This includes U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.
“The department and the CDC continue to urge U.S. citizens to reconsider foreign travel and postpone all non-essential travel,” they said in a statement Monday.