US Reports 1st Known Case of New COVID Variant

In the state of Colorado, the first reported US case of the highly-infectious Covid-19 strain that emerged in the UK has been confirmed.

Currently, the patient, a man in his 20s with no recent travel background, is isolated, reports BBC.

State health officials said that they were working to classify the latest variant's contacts and other possible cases.

It came as US President-elect Joe Biden criticised the Trump administration's distribution of vaccines.

He said the programme was falling behind schedule.

The US has recorded more than 19 million coronavirus infections and more than 337,000 deaths, the highest in the world.

Experts say that the current version is slightly more transmissible than previous strains but not inherently any more risky for those infected.

US health officials said last week that they believed it was already in circulation in the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, Colorado governor Jared Polis said the infected patient was in isolation in Elbert County near Denver.

Public health officials were carrying out "a thorough investigation", he said, and no infections had been discovered among close contacts so far.

Around the world, cases of the latest variant have appeared. In Canada, at the weekend, the first two reported infections on the North American continent came to light.

Two coronavirus vaccines are currently being marketed and implemented in the US - one by Moderna and one by Pfizer.

By the end of December, the government had tried to vaccinate 20 million Americans. But so far, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 2.1 million have earned shots (CDC).

President-elect Biden said the vaccine drive was the "greatest operational challenge we've ever faced as a nation".

"The Trump administration's plan to distribute vaccines is falling far behind," Biden said in a speech on Tuesday. "I'm going to move heaven and earth to get us going in the right direction."

Responding to Biden in a tweet, President Donald Trump said it was "up to the states to distribute the vaccines" once they had been delivered by the federal government.

"We have not only developed the vaccines, including putting up money to move the process along quickly, but gotten them to the states," he wrote.

Biden has pledged to vaccinate 100 million Americans during the first 100 days of his presidency when he takes office on 20 January.

To hit that target, the number of vaccines administered would have to be ramped up "five to six times the current pace to one million shots a day", Biden said.

"Even with that improvement... it will still take months to have the majority of the United States's population vaccinated," he said.

Biden said he would invoke a Korean War-era law to force private industry to step up vaccine production for the US government.

In the meantime, Biden warned of a "tough period for our nation" in which "things are going to get worse before they get better".

"Turning this around is going to take time," Biden said. "We might not see improvement until we're well into March."

In other developments from the US:

Initial attempts to increase assistance to Americans under the new coronavirus stimulus package were thwarted by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. On Monday, the House of Representatives approved the rise, from $600 (£445) to $2,000, a move backed by US President Donald Trump. McConnell is expected to face growing pressure this week to hold a vote on the bill.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of a Moderna vaccine live on TV on Tuesday. Her vaccination follows that of Biden and other political leaders, including Vice-President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.