Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert in the United States, stated on Sunday that people must take the more contagious strain of COVID-19 that has surfaced in southeastern England "very seriously."
COVID-19 Strain Should Be Taken 'Very Seriously'
Dr. Fauci has discouraged outright prohibiting flights from the United Kingdom. He remarked in a guesting on CNN's "State of the Union" that US officials were right to necessitate evidence of negative novel coronavirus tests for anyone entering the nation from the United Kingdom.
Fauci declined to weigh in on whether that move should have been implemented earlier. He said that the variant strain is something to act in accordance with very carefully, and "we're looking at it very intensively now."
US health officials think the coronavirus mutation that alarmed parts of Britain is no more suitable to result in severe illness or be immune to vaccines than the strain afflicting people in the US, but it should be taken "very seriously," reported The Bulletin.
According to Fauci, "Does it make someone more ill? Is it more serious virus in the sense of virulence?" He said the answer to this is that it does not seem to be that way. UK officials are telling their US colleagues that the vaccines being disseminated are seemingly strong enough to tackle the new variant, but Fauci remarked they are going to do the studies themselves.
He said the nation is at a critical phase of the pandemic with the worst yet to come, reported KGW 8.
Fauci predicted the general population would be vaccinated widely by late March or early April, which is beyond the frontliners, the elderly, and certain other clusters of the public given first priority for the vaccine distribution.
He previously prompted calm over the new mutant coronavirus strain that emerged in the United Kingdom. He said health officials should be vigilant but said that they do not want to overreact.
He refused to answer whether it was a mistake to not necessitate negative tests from British travelers. "Obviously, I think the move to put some form of restriction on travel -- and restriction could either be blocking out travel completely, which the decision was made not to do that."
However, he believes it is a prudent and good idea to initiate a form of testing and not let any individual on the plane from Britain unless they have a documented negative COVID-19 test.
United Kingdom health bosses cautioned over the weekend that the virus mutation could be more prevalent quickly and is responsible for 60 percent of new COVID-19 cases in London.
Numerous nations across Europe and the Middle East have declared UK travel prohibitions.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio have appealed to the federal government to implement a travel prohibition.
According to Cuomo, we should act intelligently for a change and mandate testing before people get on the flight or halt the flights from the United Kingdom now as numerous other countries have done such, reported Independent.
