New strain of COVID-19 likely already in US, undetected: Health Agency

“The VUI 202012/01 variant has not been identified through sequencing efforts in the United States, although viruses have only been sequenced from about 51,000 of the 17 million US cases,” the CDC said in an update on the implications of the new strain. “Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation. Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected.”

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said one week ago that a new strain of COVID-19 had been identified in roughly 1,000 individuals in southeast England. The new variant, later identified as VUI-202012/01, is believed to be more easily transmitted than previously identified strains of the disease.

Top US pandemics expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said during an interview with the ABC interview network on Tuesday that he would not be surprised if the new strain of the coronavirus was already in the United States.

"When you have this amount of spread within a place like the UK, you really need to assume that it's here already," Fauci told the network. "And certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it's already here."

The United States has been the country hardest hit by the COVID-19 since its global outbreak this year, with more than 18 million positive cases logged since January and more than 320,000 deaths related to the virus. After a respite in the summer to early fall period, infections have starting surging again, pushing hospitalization up to daily record highs of above 100,000 in recent weeks.