Scientists do not know how widely the new mutant may have spread in the United States. The virus’s debut in the United States underscores the need for urgent steps to tamp down transmission, experts said. The mutant virus seems to spread in the same ways that the coronavirus always has, suggesting that well-known precautions — shutting down nonessential businesses and instituting mask mandates and physical distancing — will hold the virus at bay. People don’t want to admit even a little place like Simla is at risk.”British authorities first detected the mutant virus in September. “I would expect a similar trajectory” in the United States, said Trevor Bedford, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Source: bd News24 December 31, 2020 14:03 UTC