The new omicron variant of the coronavirus could already be in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci says.

“I would not be surprised if it is,” the White House’s chief medical adviser told NBC’s Weekend Today.

“We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you’re already having travel-related cases that they’ve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” he said Saturday.