Coronavirus Variants Account For Almost 50% Of All New Cases In US - White House

The coronavirus variants represent almost half of all new cases in the United States, White House Senior Adviser on the COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said during a briefing on Friday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2021) The coronavirus variants represent almost half of all new cases in the United States, White House Senior Adviser on the COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said during a briefing on Friday.

"Right now these variants account for nearly half of all COVID-19 cases in the United States," Slavitt said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Rochelle Walensky said during the briefing that B.1.1.7 or the British variant of the novel coronavirus represents 44 percent of the cases during the week of March 27 and the CDC expects the prevalence of this variant to be higher by now.

Earlier on Friday, the Biden administration announced the US government will invest $1.7 billion into doing more genomic sequencing to better monitor and prevent the coronavirus variants from emerging.