(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that it is “certainly possible” that the new variant of COVID is already here in the US but added that it is “certainly is not the dominant strain.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it hasn’t detected the coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, with the caveat that an extremely limited number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have been sequenced. 

While there’s evidence the variant could potentially be more transmissible, the fact that it is more predominant in a particular country or area doesn’t mean it’s more infectious and there’s no evidence it causes more severe illness, according to the CDC. 

“Viruses mutate. It’s what they do,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Monday. “Sars-cov-2, which is the virus which causes covid-19, has mutated dozens of times already this year. that doesn’t mean it’s more dangerous, it doesn’t mean it’s more contagious.”