Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city’s health department was following news of a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus strain in the UK “very, very close”.
Lightfoot said the city was monitoring the latest developments before the current report and said the city was ready to “take all necessary action”.
“We are watching this very closely, we are digging up,” Lightfoot said during an unrelated press conference on Monday. “I don’t think we know enough yet about what this potential new strain is, how it’s being transmitted, but believe me, we’re watching very closely and taking all necessary steps to protect the public.”
So far, British Airways will require passengers to test negative for coronavirus before boarding flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Cuomo said in a press briefing that he also asked Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic to comply with the same requirements.
Moncef Slaoui, the US government’s chief adviser on the US government’s COVID-19 vaccination effort, said scientists were still working to confirm whether the virus strain in the UK was spreading more easily.
Although this could be why it has become more widespread in the UK, Slaoui said in a briefing with reporters on Monday that another possible explanation is that “sowing happened in the shadows” before scientists began looking for it. .
Animal studies are needed to confirm that the strain spreads more easily. Slaoui said the trial takes several weeks.
Meanwhile, he said there was no evidence that the variant caused more severe disease or was more fatal. He also said that vaccines are still expected to be effective against the strain of the virus, but that scientists are working to confirm this.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner for the US Food and Drug Administration and a member of Pfizer’s board of directors, told CNBC on Monday that the evidence suggests the new variant is easier to pass on. But, he warned, “it doesn’t appear to have moved the virus’s surface proteins in a way that would pass over our vaccines or previous immunity. In fact, we don’t think that’s the case.”
From Canada to India, one country after another has banned flights from the UK, while France has banned British trucks for 48 hours while the strain is evaluated.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday implemented strict blockades in London and large areas of southern England in response to rising coronavirus infections. He said the increase in cases seems to come from a new variant of coronavirus, which is about 70% more transmissible than existing strains.
Meanwhile, the European Union has launched the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, setting the stage for the first COVID-19 shootings in the bloc of 27 nations that will begin on December 27. The approval came just hours after the EU Medicines Agency said the vaccine met safety and quality standards. It is already released in the UK and US