February 8 According to a study published by the researchers on the 7th, the spread of Variant novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom is still at a low level in the United States, but the spread rate is relatively fast, about doubling every 10 days.
Researchers say there is still time for the U.S. to take steps to slow the spread of new strains.
But they warned that without “decisive and immediate public health action”, the Variant virus “may have devastating consequences for the mortality and morbidity of COVID-19 in the United States within a few months.”
The study, funded in part by CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health, has been published on the MedRxiv Medical website and has not been peer-reviewed.
The Variant novel coronavirus B.1.1.7 found in the UK has become the main virus strain transmitted in the country.
Health officials say that existing vaccines may be effective for new strains, although their effectiveness may be reduced.
The study found that the spread rate of B.1.1.7 in the United States was still “relatively low”.
In the last week of January, cases of the virus accounted for 3.6% of the number of coronavirus cases in the United States.
However, the researchers pointed out that tracking the spread of the virus nationwide is complicated due to the lack of national genome monitoring projects in the United States like the United Kingdom, Denmark and other countries.
B.1.1.7 The spread in California seems to be relatively slow, with virus detection rate doubling every 12.2 days, 9.1 days in Florida and 9.8 days nationwide in the United States.
The new strain has spread through community transmission, according to the study.
Researchers believe that the virus was introduced to the United States through international travel and then spread through domestic tourism.
Millions of Americans travel during Thanksgiving, Christmas and the 2021 New Year holiday season.
Researchers found that the Variant virus seems to spread slowly in the United States than in European countries, but the matter needs further investigation, which may be caused by insufficient data at present.
