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May 24, 2021 6:12 AM By Brandon Lee and Alex Ruoff
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.
The U.K. government has pushed back on claims from the former chief aide of Prime Minister Boris Johnson that officials pursued a herd immunity strategy in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
India, Taiwan Cases Slow; Singapore Shuts Malls: Virus Update
Bloomberg 1 hr ago
India’s new coronavirus cases continued to slow on Sunday, with infections at the lowest in more than a month. Taiwan reported 287 new local infections, below the six-day average of 380, as active local cases rose to 3,158.
Singapore will close two malls after new cases were linked to the properties as the health minister said more targeted testing and surveillance operations will be conducted to curb outbreaks. Thailand discovered three cases of the variant initially seen in South Africa, two days after the country detected its first local infection of another variant first found in India. Malaysia reported a record 6,976 new cases.
The spread of coronavirus in the U.S. continues to slow, with the country ending its first week since June with no days of infections exceeding 30,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.