The United States will spend $1.7 billion to combat a slew of coronavirus variants that have roiled the country, the Biden administration announced Friday.
A total of $1 billion will fund the expansion of “genomic sequencing” to identify coronavirus mutations and monitor variants, $400 million will be spent to create six Centers of Excellence in Genomic Epidemiology, and $300 million will be used “to build and support a National Bioinformatics Infrastructure” for connecting “the dots between how pathogens spread and mutate to help solve outbreaks.”
Original COVID-19 strains are responsible for “half” of all U.S. cases, and “new and potentially dangerous strains” of the virus are gaining prominence in the country, according to the Biden administration.
“An essential component of the response to the emerging COVID-19 variants is increasing the country’s genomic sequencing — the process by which COVID DNA is decoded and potentially deadly mutations in the virus are detected,” the president’s cohort wrote.
US FLYING BLIND WITH CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS
The funding totals were broken down by state, and California, with its $17,091,936 haul, is set to receive the most money. Texas was a close second with $15,555,044, followed by Florida, which will receive $12,699,436. Money will also be given to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, Palau, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Micronesia, among others.
There are several variants present in the U.S., most of which are more transmissible than the original strain. The B.1.1.7 mutation, which was first found in the United Kingdom, has become the dominant strain in the country as of April. It is estimated to be 70% more transmissible than the strain that commenced the pandemic.
Other variants such as the South African B.1.351, Brazil P.1, and California mutations, B.1.427/B.1.429, have gripped the country. The South African strain is 50% more transmissible, while California’s pair of altered viruses are estimated to be 20% more contagious. Brazil’s strain is thought to be more transmissible, though more research is needed to solidify that conclusion.
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The U.S. has accrued more than 31.5 million COVID-19 cases since the onset of the pandemic, with nearly 565,000 deaths. Positive cases have increased nationwide by 8% over the past 14 days, while deaths declined 16%, and hospitalizations jumped 8%.
