Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious diseases expert, stated on Tuesday that US citizens should assume that the new, more contagious COVID-19 strain that emerged in the United Kingdom is already in the country. It is "certainly possible" that the strain is already present within the US, according to Fauci on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Fauci: Assume It Is Here Already

According to Dr. Fauci, "When you have this amount of spread within a place like the UK, you really need to assume that it's here already... it certainly is not the dominant strain but I would certainly not be surprised at all if it is already here," reported The Hill.

The director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with "PBS NewsHour," remarked on Monday that he would assume the new strain detected in the UK was already within our nation, taking into account international travel.

Fauci said he would not be surprised if the strain is already present in the US as when we start to look for it, we will find it, reported Business Insider.

He advised against "overreacting" to the new novel coronavirus strain and against a temporary travel ban to impose as a response. When asked on Tuesday about such advisory, he called travel bans "rather draconian," considering that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is also in talks with the testing of all arrivals in New York City.

Nepal has become the latest nation to prohibit airline passengers coming from or transiting through the United Kingdom from entering into the nation, according to its aviation authority on Tuesday. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) announced in a statement, the measure will be implemented from midnight Wednesday local time and will be imposed until further notice, reported CNN.

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According to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization (WHO)'s COVID-19 technical lead, the reproduction rate of the new COVID-19 variant is 0.4 higher in contrast to other strains. This means the number of people an infected individual spreads increases from 1.1 to 1.5.

Scientists also presume the British mutant strain of COVID-19 is probably already in the US and could have even originated in the nation.

The new strain is feared to be more prevalent among children and 70 percent more transmissible. This has resulted in calls for the US to implement a travel ban on the UK, as other countries have already done, reported Daily Mail.

The COVID-19 pandemic has now infected over 77.2 million people globally with 1.6 million fatalities, according to real-time data tabulated by the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

According to Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, there has yet to be evidence that the new variant induces a more severe illness.

Although cases and deaths from the virus in the United States are back to lower levels, according to updated data from Johns Hopkins University, the case count was not adequate to push the total number beyond the 18 million mark on Tuesday.

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