The lack of Covid testing capacity in the US could mean that the new, highly transmissible strain of coronavirus, which first appeared in the UK, is already making its way through communities in the US.
That’s what Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston Medical Center.
“To find this strain, we need to take a percentage of the diagnosed samples and do an in-depth genetic analysis (in the) In the US, our capacity was not spectacular, “said the infectious disease doctor “The News with Shepard Smith” on Monday. “If the burden is here, we may be missing it because the holes in our net are too wide.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionthe new variant was not detected in the USA.
However, the agency said viruses were only sequenced from approximately 51,000 of the 17 million infections in the country. The UK recorded the most sequences with 125.00. The infections in Great Britain reached their second highest daily value on Christmas Eve. The country confirmed 39,036 new Covid-19 cases that day.
From Monday is the In the US, all travelers flying from the UK must provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test amid growing concerns about the new variant of the virus.
Dr. Bhadelia, who is also the medical assistant for NBC News, said the measures did not go far enough.
“You can still have people who test negative, get on the plane and then come back positive. So I think testing needs to be linked to some kind of quarantine,” she said.
Japan has taken stricter measures and stopped all arrivals of foreign nationals. More than a dozen countries have reported cases of the rapidly spreading mutation, including Canada, France, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
Health experts in the UK and US found that during the new variant seems to be more transferableThere is still no evidence that it is more deadly. Dr. Bhadelia warned that the results shouldn’t make people complacent when it comes to the new strain.
“The problem is that while we don’t think it increases mortality, the fact that it is more easily transmitted is also a bigger problem because the more people get infected, the more people end up in hospitals. and possibly die, “she added.
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This article originally appeared on www.cnbc.com
