(Newser)
– The British version of the coronavirus may not be the only new strain to worry about. The White House Coronavirus Working Group said the United States could have its own strain, 50 percent more transmissible. This would partly explain the current increase in cases, the working group said; the rate of new infections is almost twice as high as last spring and summer, CNBC reports. “This acceleration suggests that there may be a US variant that has evolved here, in addition to the British variant that is already spreading in our communities,” the report said. “Aggressive mitigation must be used to suit a more aggressive virus.”
The CDC has reported at least 52 cases of the British variant in the US. “I would be surprised if this does not grow fast enough,” said the director of the National Institutes of Health. Washington Post. A CDC official said: “We certainly take this seriously and assume for the time being that this option is more transmissible.” Health experts still expect existing vaccines to work against all newly discovered variants. But the CDC report to states warned that “without the uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three layers and well-matched) and strict social distancing, epidemics could worsen rapidly as these variants spread and become prevalent.” (Read more stories about coronavirus.)