Advertisement
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
US President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic at The Queen theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus: new Covid-19 strain hits US as Donald Trump’s vaccine plan runs ‘far behind’

  • US detects first case of coronavirus variant in Colorado
  • US expected to miss goal of vaccinating 20 million by year end

The first known US case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain has been discovered in Colorado, the state’s Governor Jared Polis said on Tuesday.

“Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the Covid-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK,” Polis said on Twitter.

He attached an official statement from his office and state health officials that said the individual is a “male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history”.

The individual had no close contacts, the statement said, but the situation will continue to be monitored “very closely” and authorities are working to identify other potential cases through contact tracing.

Fears have been raised by the new strain of Covid-19, which experts say is potentially more transmissible.

More than 3,000 cases of the variant have already been reported in Britain and dozens of countries in Europe and around the world, according to the EU health agency ECDC.

The news of the Colorado case came soon after US President-elect Joe Biden criticised President Donald Trump’s promised swift coronavirus vaccine roll-out, saying it has fallen behind expectations, and warned it could take years before the bulk of Americans receive the necessary shots.

04:14

Covid-19: coronavirus variants seen in Britain, South Africa spread worldwide

Covid-19: coronavirus variants seen in Britain, South Africa spread worldwide

Biden, speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, said some 2 million people have been vaccinated, well short of the 20 million Republican Trump had promised by the end of the year.

“The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind, far behind,” Biden said.

“A few weeks ago, the Trump administration suggested that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of December. With only a few days left in December, we’ve only vaccinated a few million so far.”

“If it continues to move as it is now, it’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people,” he said in the speech from his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden’s goal of ensuring that 100 million shots are administered by the end of his 100th day in office would mean “ramping up five to six times the current pace to 1 million shots a day,” he added, noting that it would require Congress to approve additional funding.

Almost 1.8 million dead, but future pandemics could be worse

“Even with that improvement, even if we boost the speed of vaccinations to 1 million shots a day, it will still take months to have the majority of the United States’ population vaccinated,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris received a Covid-19 vaccination live on television in a bid to boost confidence in the inoculation even while warning it will be months before it is available to all.

Senator Harris, who is black and Indian-American, became the second high-profile person from an ethnic minority background to receive the vaccine after Surgeon General Jerome Adams on December 18.

Biden, who takes office on January 20, has said he will make the fight against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 19 million Americans and killed over 334,000, his top priority. He received his first injected dose of the vaccine live on television last week. Two doses are required for full protection.

US Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris receives the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from a nurse in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AP

The Biden team has put particular emphasis on the importance of encouraging vaccine distribution and inoculation in non-white groups especially hard hit by the coronavirus.

Harris received the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from a nurse wearing a mask and a face visor at a medical centre in predominately black southeast Washington.

“I barely felt it,” Harris said, laughing, after receiving the injection in her upper left arm.

“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine – it is relatively painless … it is safe … it’s literally about saving lives. I trust the scientists.”

Life of Kamala Harris, first woman elected US vice-president

Trump, who had Covid-19 in October, frequently has played down the severity of the pandemic and overseen a response many health experts say was disorganised, cavalier and sometimes ignored the science behind disease transmission.

Biden will inherit the logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans, as well as the task of persuading people who worry its development was rushed to take it.

Biden and his team have warned the vaccine will take time to roll out to the general population and urged people to listen to the advice of medical experts to avoid infection by the coronavirus.

Dr Atul Gawande, a member of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, told CBS News the transition team still did not have all the information it needed to understand the bottlenecks hampering vaccine distribution.

01:56

First Covid-19 vaccine administered as US death toll passes 300,000

First Covid-19 vaccine administered as US death toll passes 300,000

He warned that the Trump administration may have set unrealistic expectations that everyone who wanted to get vaccinated could do so by the end of June 2021.

“The realistic picture is to expect it could be fall before … enough people are being vaccinated that we’re getting back to normal and that it might be summer before the general public is really accessing the vaccine,” he said.

Other Biden transition officials have echoed such caution.

Dr Vivek Murthy, Biden’s pick for surgeon general, told NBC News last week that while it was possible that people in lower-risk categories would get the vaccine in the late spring, it was more realistic to expect it would be midsummer or early fall before it reached the general population.

How many people need a Covid-19 vaccination to halt its spread?

The United States has so far authorised two Covid-19 vaccines: one developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech and the other by Moderna. Others are being evaluated.

Separately on Tuesday, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put off a vote on Trump’s call to boost Covid-19 relief cheques for Americans to US$2,000, in a rare challenge to his fellow Republican.

Biden has said he favours the increase from an already approved US$600.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Post