The US is carefully analyzing the coronavirus variant

WASHINGTON – US health officials believe that the mutation of the coronavirus that triggers alarms in parts of the UK is no better for causing serious illness or being resistant to vaccines than the strain that affects people in the United States, but still needs to be taken “very seriously, ”said the government’s top infectious disease expert on Sunday.

Dr Anthony Fauci approved the decision by US officials to request negative COVID-19 tests before allowing people from the UK to enter the US. He said that the variant strain is something “to be followed very carefully” and “we are looking at it very intensely now”.

He said, “Does it make anyone sick? Is it a more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is that it doesn’t seem that way. “British officials are telling their US colleagues that it looks like the vaccines that will be launched will be strong enough to deal with the new variant, but, Fauci said,” we will do the studies ourselves. “

Fauci said the United States is in a critical phase of the pandemic, with the worst likely yet. He predicted that the general population would be widely immunized by the end of March or early April – beyond front-line workers, the elderly and certain other segments of the public who give priority to vaccines.

Fauci spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union.”