New Covid-19 variant will dominate across US in coming months: CDC

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States, has warned that the new Covid-19 United Kingdom variant (B.1.1.7.) may dominate across the US by March. CDC believes that the daily cases will surge during the onset of spring.

In a report, CDC stated: “Variant B.1.1.7 has the potential to increase the US pandemic trajectory in the coming months.”

CDC mentioned that it has modeled the course of the virus’s spread based on currently known factors.

“In this model, B.1.1.7 prevalence is initially low, yet because it is more transmissible than are current variants, it exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March,” the report added.

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CDC explained in its weekly report that the rapid spread of the virus will increase the burden on health resources that are already overwhelmed by the Covid-19 hospital admissions. The spike in cases will only sap healthcare resources.

This will further increase the need for better adherence to mitigation strategies, such as social distancing and mask-wearing, the CDC added.

It also increases the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve protective herd immunity to control the pandemic, the CDC said.

“Efforts to prepare the health care system for further surges in cases are warranted. Increased transmissibility also means that higher than anticipated vaccination coverage must be attained to achieve the same level of disease control to protect the public compared with less transmissible variants,” the CDC said.