Dr. Anthony Fauci said it is likely that the new highly contagious strain of COVID-19 has already spread across the country than is currently known.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he would be “very surprised” if the new variant that emerged in the United Kingdom has not yet reached “several other states”.
“I think it is very clear that if it goes to places like California, New York and Colorado … it will soon be in several other states,” Fauci told Newsweek on Tuesday.
The new variant – which has been confirmed in at least five states – is said to be about 70 percent more contagious than other strains.
“We take this very seriously. Because if you have greater transmissibility, you will have more cases ”, said Fauci.
“When you have more cases, you have more hospitalizations. And when you receive more hospitalizations, you end up with more deaths ”.
But Fauci said he did not believe that the new strain was the driving force behind the most recent outbreaks of cases across the country.
“I don’t think the UK’s mutation [variant] it was responsible for the very significant increase in cases in the United States, because the United Kingdom variant is here, but it is not the dominant strain in the United States, ”said Fauci.