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– The UK variant of the coronavirus may not be the only new strain to be concerned about. The White House Coronavirus Task Force has told states that the US may have its own new strain that is 50% more transmissible. That would partly explain the current rise in the number of cases, the working group said; the number of new infections is almost twice as high as last spring and summer, CNBC reports. “This acceleration suggests that there may be an American variety that has evolved here, in addition to the British variety that is already spreading in our communities,” the report said. “Aggressive restriction should be used to match a more aggressive virus.”
The CDC has reported at least 52 cases of the British variant in the US. “I’d be surprised if that doesn’t grow quite fast,” said the director of the National Institutes of Health Washington Post. A CDC official said, “We are absolutely taking this seriously, and for the time being we assume that this variant is more transferable.” Health experts still expect existing vaccines to work against all newly discovered variants. But the CDC report to the states warned that “without a uniform implementation of effective face masking (two- or three-layer and well-fitting) and strict social detachment, epidemics could quickly worsen as these variants spread and become predominant.” (Read more stories about the coronavirus.)