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 A new, even more contagious variant of the coronavirus quickly
spreading across Britain caused more fear in Americans already weary
from nine months of the pandemic and prompted talks among top U.S.
officials to ban travel from the United Kingdom
The new coronavirus variant has emerged as the United States
grapples with a nationwide spike in infections that added more than
a million new cases in just six days, according to a Reuters tally,
a total of more than 18 million since the pandemic began.
In California, an epicenter of the latest surge, intensive care unit
(ICU) beds were scarce and hospitals said they lacked enough doctors
and nurses to care for patients.
"The whole California ICU capacity has been going down. We are all
struggling," said Dr. Imran Mohammed of Sutter Roseville Medical
Center, north of Sacramento. "We really don’t want to see more than
this. We will be challenged to see further ICU patients and we will
have no place eventually."
Many U.S. states and cities have imposed lockdowns and business
closures to try to get a handle on a wave of illness driven by last
month's Thanksgiving gatherings.
Political leaders have asked Americans to stay home for the upcoming
holidays to prevent a surge upon the surge threatening to overwhelm
healthcare systems, a request that many have defied.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on
Tuesday that the altered coronavirus had not yet been detected in
the United States.
U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar told Fox News that the Pfizer/BioNTech
and Moderna vaccines, which received U.S. emergency use
authorizations this month, should work against the new variant.
Moderna Inc and BioNTech SE, which worked with Pfizer Inc to develop
its vaccine, are scrambling to test their shots against the new
virus mutations, but expressed confidence in them.
"Scientifically it is highly likely that the immune response by this
vaccine can also deal with this virus variant," BioNTech Chief
Executive Ugur Sahin told reporters.
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 MORE THAN 600,000 VACCINATED
More than 600,000 Americans had received their
first COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Monday,
according to the CDC.
The first wave of shots have so far gone to
healthcare workers and nursing home residents,
as well as some top government officials.
Americans in "non-essential" jobs have been told they would likely
wait months for their turn.
Azar and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease
official, received the Moderna shot on live television on Tuesday.
President-elect Joe Biden was inoculated with the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine in front of cameras on Monday.
The White House coronavirus task force has no plans to restrict
travel from the UK, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.
But Michael Osterholm, one of Biden's pandemic advisors, said all
options needed to be considered, suggesting that the U.S. government
could mandate a 14-day quarantine for visitors from the UK.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee has ordered a 14-day quarantine for
travelers arriving from the UK, South Africa or other "countries
with circulation of a new, potentially more contagious COVID-19
variation."
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he asked airlines to add his
state to a list of 120 countries that require COVID-19 screening for
incoming air travelers.
"The United States should say the same thing that New York said. Say
that people need to test before they come from the UK," Cuomo said
on a Tuesday call with reporters.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Lisa Lambert in Washington, Peter
Szekely and Gabriella Borter in New York, Anurag Maan in Bengaluru,
Nathan Layne in Roseville, California and Jill Serjeant and Dan
Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Gabriella Borter and Dan
Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Matthew Lewis and Bill
Berkrot)
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