[CBC뉴스] 미국의 최고 전염병 전문가인 앤서니 파우치는 3일(현지시간) 변종된 COVID-19 변종이 미국에 있었고 확산될 것이라고 경고했다. 영국을 휩쓴 COVID-19 감염 변종의 몇몇 사례가 최근 미국에서 확인된 바 있다.
최근 여행을 하지 않은 사람들에게서 발견된 이 사례들은 미국에서 개인에서 개인으로 변형된 변종이 퍼질 가능성이 있다는 것을 보여주었다는 설명이다.
Top U.S. infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, warned on Sunday (January 3) the mutated strain of COVID-19 was in the U.S. and will spread. Several cases of a more infections variant of COVID-19 that has swept through the United Kingdom have been identified in the U.S. in recent days.
The cases, found in individuals who had not recent traveled, showed the likely community spread of the variant from person-to-person in the United States. Health experts have said they believe the new variant is more infectious but recently approved vaccines should provide protection against it.
Fauci also responded to Britain's plans to delay giving the coronavirus vaccine booster shot in an attempt to ensure more people could be given the more limited protection conferred by a single dose. Fauci recommended that the coronavirus vaccines should be lead by science administered in the U.S. "the way clinical trials have instructed us to do it."
The United States has lost more than 345,000 lives from COVID-19 to date, equal to one in every 950 Americans, and ranks 16th in national per capita coronavirus deaths in the world.
Meanwhile, the tally of known U.S. infections reached another sober milestone on Friday, surpassing 20 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients exceeded 125,000, setting a daily record once more.
California, the most populous state with 40 million residents, has become a leading U.S. flashpoint of the pandemic despite some of the nation's toughest restrictions on social gatherings and business activities.
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