COVID-19: Scientists say that UK variant is spreading rapidly across US, may dominate soon

After the emergence of the UK variant of coronavirus in December last year, it has become 70 per cent more transmissible. According to the not-yet peer-reviewed journal, which is analysed after collaboration with 50 scientists stated that deadly variant may become the dominant strain by late March this year. The paper stated that the US labs are still sequencing only a small subset of coronavirus samples.

The report shared by the researchers read, "We found that the earliest timing of introductions into the U.S. ...the likely start of sustained local transmission in California of November 27, 2020. ... We found that the other U.S. clades had median [the most recent common ancestor] TMRCAs in December 2020 and January 2021, suggesting repeated introductions of B.1.1.7 into the U.S. from international locations from November, 2020 through the present time." [Sic.] 

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"Our study shows that the U.S. is on a similar trajectory as other countries where B.1.1.7 rapidly became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant, requiring immediate and decisive action to minimize COVID-19 morbidity and mortality," researchers wrote in the study's preprint, which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.

Is UK COVID-19 variant a threat to the US?

The United States scientists planned several studies to understand the growth and spread of the variant as UK variant was imported into the US multiple times in November 2020. To control the spread of the new strain of the virus, the US had banned direct flights from UK. Now, according to the scientists this variant will become more deadly in several states from March. 

What study says?

The study read, "Because of the sudden and rapid rise of the B.1.1.7 [UK] variant across the world, we sought to understand the prevalence and growth dynamics of this variant in the U.S., from early emergence to rapid onward transmission. ... These findings show that B.1.1.7 will likely become the dominant variant in many U.S. states by March 2021, leading to further surges of COVID-19 in the country, unless urgent mitigation efforts are immediately implemented." [Sic.]

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