(Reuters) – A more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has crossed the UK has been reported in at least five states in the US, said National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins in an interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday.
“We’ve now seen that same British virus in the US in at least five states and I would be surprised if that doesn’t grow rapidly,” said Collins, adding that it doesn’t appear to be more serious, however.
Last week, Reuters reported that Florida became the third known US state to identify such a case, with two other cases in Colorado and California.
Scientists have said newly developed vaccines should be equally effective against both variants.
The NIH director said he expects vaccinations to be conducted through pharmacies once the country grapples with an increase in the number of cases, with vaccinations falling well short of early targets.
He said in the interview that at least 80% -85% of Americans would need to get the vaccine to achieve “herd immunity.” (bit.ly/3opexFt)
Leading American infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said in a separate interview that it was not clear what percentage of the population should be vaccinated for herd immunity.
“I originally said 70%, but now based on my estimates it’s probably somewhere between 70% -85%,” Fauci said in an interview with the Economic Club of Washington, DC on Wednesday.
“We need to get enough people vaccinated so that the outbreak dynamics diminish dramatically,” he added. “I don’t think this will happen until the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall, if we get it right.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered more than 4.8 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country and dispensed more than 17 million doses as of Tuesday morning.
Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Adaptation by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta