People gather on a beach in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood on March 27.
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg
Coronavirus version B.1.1.7 is now the predominant variant in an area that contains two-thirds of the US population, with one of Covid’s top advisers to President Joe Biden saying that it spreads more easily and probably leads to a Covid -19 most serious symptoms.
Initially found in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7 is the predominant variant in five of the 10 regions in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention groups the population of the United States. The CDC identified these regions on Friday, saying they include much of the east coast, from southern New York to Florida, as well as the midwest and most of the Sunbelt. About 220 million people, or two-thirds of the US population, live in these five regions.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said on March 31 that it is now the main variant in five regions and accounts for 4% to 35% of cases, depending on the region. At the time, she did not identify the regions, but said the variant accounted for about 26% of cases at the national level.
“From the reports we are seeing, it most likely could be a little more serious, but it is definitely more communicable,” said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a news conference on Friday.
Several variants of the virus are spreading in the United States, and health officials say more research is needed to find out how they differ and how much more contagious or dangerous they are compared to the original version of the virus. Being the main variant does not mean that it has surpassed the original version of the virus, but its spreading force can lead to it.
B.1.1.7 is now the predominant variant in regions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, the CDC said in a statement on Friday. These are the regions grouped around New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas, an area that includes 26 states in total.
“We are watching this very carefully, but it is starting to become the prevalent variant in many regions of the United States,” said Walensky on Wednesday.
Biden praised the pace of vaccinations, while warning that US cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. The US is now vaccinating 3 million people a day. About 58 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated so far and nearly 102 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC.
However, the increase in cases led Walensky to warn earlier this week about “impending doom”, without a change in trajectory.
“We have 64,000 new Covid cases today, and our numbers continue to increase,” she said at a news conference on Friday. “I still continue to worry about the fact that, with 80% of the population not vaccinated, we still have a lot of work to do to control this pandemic.”
(Updates with details and history throughout)