The news comes as President Joe Biden restores coronavirus travel bans for most non-US citizens in several countries.
The United States reported the first known case of COVID-19 first detected in Brazil.
The Minnesota Department of Health confirmed the case Monday, the same day President Joe Biden extended the restrictions on coronavirus to ban access for most non-Americans who have recently traveled to Brazil, South Africa and several European countries.
The variant of the new coronavirus known as P1 was detected in a specimen from a Minnesota resident with a recent history of travel to Brazil, the state health department said in a statement.
The agency said it marks the first documented instance of P1 in the US.
While the so-called “Brazilian variant” is considered to be more transmissible than the original strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, it is not known whether the disease it causes is more severe.
Biden has promised to launch a fierce battle against COVID-19 in the United States, which has seen the most coronavirus-related cases and deaths in the world.
“With the worsening pandemic and the spread of more contagious variants, now is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an early news briefing on renewed travel restrictions. .
The United States has recorded more than 25 million infections – about a quarter of global cases – as well as more than 420,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned over the weekend that coronavirus-related deaths in the United States could exceed 500,000 by next month.
The CDC and the US State Department also announced that on Tuesday, all passengers coming to the US will have to take a negative COVID-19 test before boarding the flight. This includes US citizens and foreigners.
“The department and the CDC continue to strongly recommend to U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad and postpone all non-essential travel,” they said in a statement Monday.