Walensky: Highly contagious UK variant is now most common

During the White House COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that the variant from the UK known as B117 is more contagious and is “the most common lineage right now."

Video Transcript

- I think you said that the UK variant is now the most common lineage in the US. Do you mean it's the most common variant or it's the most common period, even compared with the original strain.

- So I'll start. Kayla, thank you for that. It is the most common lineage period. So there are many different lineages of the-- many different potential variants. There are several different kinds of sort of wild type variants and this is in fact, the most common lineage right now.