Prognosis
U.S. Arrival of Highly Contagious Variant Draws CDC Scrutiny
- Variant from India seen as a risk to under-vaccinated regions
- Cases below 1% in U.S. now, but growth rate remains unclear
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Federal Health officials are ramping up their surveillance of the highly transmissible Covid-19 variant first identified in India as experts warn that under-vaccinated areas in the U.S. could become hot spots for the mutation.
While U.S. cases attributed to the B.1.617 variant currently sit below 1%, the growth rate remains unclear due to the small sample size. Meanwhile, one science group said the strain could be as much as 50% more transmissible than B.1.1.7, the variant that emerged from the U.K. That mutation was first seen in the U.S. in late December, and is now dominant nationally.