Video above: Some optimistic as CDC releases guidelines for those fully vaccinatedThe next two months could determine whether the U.S. will experience another surge in coronavirus cases, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.After months of devastation, steep decreases have been reported in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. More people are getting vaccinated, and the government on Monday released guidance on safe activities for fully vaccinated people.But now infection numbers have plateaued at very high levels — with the U.S. averaging 60,000 new cases daily in the past week. Multiple governors have eased safety measures despite health officials' warnings. Spring break events are kicking off across the country, threatening the potential for further spread of the virus. Experts project the country is about to see another dangerous COVID-19 spike."There is so much that's critical riding on the next two months," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told the National League of Cities on Monday. "How quickly we will vaccinate versus whether we will have another surge really relies on what happens in March and April."The spike will be fueled by the B.1.1.7 variant, first spotted in the United Kingdom, and will come over the next six to 14 weeks, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota."Four weeks ago, the B.1.1.7 variant made up about 1 to 4% of the virus that we were seeing in communities across the country. Today, it's up to 30 to 40%," Osterholm told NBC on Sunday. "What we've seen in Europe, when we hit that 50% mark, you see cases surge," he said.Walensky said she hopes local leaders will do what they can to encourage people to wear masks and keep good physical distance from each other — and advise people to get vaccinated.Walensky also said the U.S. health system is "frail.""In the last 10 years, we have seen Ebola, we have seen Zika, we have seen H1N1, and now of course we've seen COVID-19," she said. "We do need a massive bolstering of our public health infrastructure and public health workforce ... We saw the manifestation of it being frail in what happened with COVID-19."Here's what we know about the B.1.1.7 variant While there are multiple variants of coronavirus circulating in the U.S., experts have been particularly concerned with the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant's dangerous potential.In mid-January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned cases of the variant were likely to see "rapid growth in early 2021," adding it would likely become the predominant variant in the U.S. by this month.So far, the agency has reported more than 3,000 known cases of the variant across 47 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. About a quarter of those cases are in Florida. But the CDC has said that likely does not represent the total number of such cases in the U.S. — but rather just the ones that have been found by analyzing positive samples, with the help of genomic sequencing.Infectious diseases specialist and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN on Sunday she was on an emergency meeting a group of experts held on Christmas Eve to discuss the variant."We've been tracking it very closely since then," she said. "Where it has hit in the U.K. and now elsewhere in Europe, it has really been catastrophic. It has driven up rates of hospitalizations and deaths and it's very difficult to control."New research shows that in the U.S., the variant is 59% to 74% more transmissible than the original novel coronavirus. Gounder says cases in the U.S. are "increasing exponentially." That's why it's crucial for the country to keep pushing to lower COVID-19 infections. Vaccination numbers are still not high enough — and won't be high enough in several weeks' time — to help suppress the predicted surge, experts warned."This is sort of like we've been running this really long marathon, and we're 100 yards from the finish line and we sit down and we give up," Gounder said. "We're almost there, we just need to give ourselves a bit more time to get a larger proportion of the population covered with vaccines."
Video above: Some optimistic as CDC releases guidelines for those fully vaccinated
The next two months could determine whether the U.S. will experience another surge in coronavirus cases, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After months of devastation, steep decreases have been reported in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. More people are getting vaccinated, and the government on Monday released guidance on safe activities for fully vaccinated people.
But now infection numbers have plateaued at very high levels — with the U.S. averaging 60,000 new cases daily in the past week. Multiple governors have eased safety measures despite health officials' warnings. Spring break events are kicking off across the country, threatening the potential for further spread of the virus.
Experts project the country is about to see another dangerous COVID-19 spike.
"There is so much that's critical riding on the next two months," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told the National League of Cities on Monday. "How quickly we will vaccinate versus whether we will have another surge really relies on what happens in March and April."
The spike will be fueled by the B.1.1.7 variant, first spotted in the United Kingdom, and will come over the next six to 14 weeks, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
"Four weeks ago, the B.1.1.7 variant made up about 1 to 4% of the virus that we were seeing in communities across the country. Today, it's up to 30 to 40%," Osterholm told NBC on Sunday. "What we've seen in Europe, when we hit that 50% mark, you see cases surge," he said.
Walensky said she hopes local leaders will do what they can to encourage people to wear masks and keep good physical distance from each other — and advise people to get vaccinated.
Walensky also said the U.S. health system is "frail."
"In the last 10 years, we have seen Ebola, we have seen Zika, we have seen H1N1, and now of course we've seen COVID-19," she said. "We do need a massive bolstering of our public health infrastructure and public health workforce ... We saw the manifestation of it being frail in what happened with COVID-19."
Here's what we know about the B.1.1.7 variant
While there are multiple variants of coronavirus circulating in the U.S., experts have been particularly concerned with the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant's dangerous potential.
In mid-January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned cases of the variant were likely to see "rapid growth in early 2021," adding it would likely become the predominant variant in the U.S. by this month.
So far, the agency has reported more than 3,000 known cases of the variant across 47 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. About a quarter of those cases are in Florida. But the CDC has said that likely does not represent the total number of such cases in the U.S. — but rather just the ones that have been found by analyzing positive samples, with the help of genomic sequencing.
Infectious diseases specialist and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN on Sunday she was on an emergency meeting a group of experts held on Christmas Eve to discuss the variant.
"We've been tracking it very closely since then," she said. "Where it has hit in the U.K. and now elsewhere in Europe, it has really been catastrophic. It has driven up rates of hospitalizations and deaths and it's very difficult to control."
New research shows that in the U.S., the variant is 59% to 74% more transmissible than the original novel coronavirus. Gounder says cases in the U.S. are "increasing exponentially."
That's why it's crucial for the country to keep pushing to lower COVID-19 infections. Vaccination numbers are still not high enough — and won't be high enough in several weeks' time — to help suppress the predicted surge, experts warned.
"This is sort of like we've been running this really long marathon, and we're 100 yards from the finish line and we sit down and we give up," Gounder said. "We're almost there, we just need to give ourselves a bit more time to get a larger proportion of the population covered with vaccines."
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