posted by mike kraft
on Mon, 2021-03-08 10:49
(CNN) The US is in the "eye of the hurricane" right now, according to epidemiologist Michael Osterholm.
After months of devastation, it appeared things were heading in the right direction with officials reporting several weeks of steep declines in Covid-19 cases and lowered hospitalization numbers.
But now case declines have stopped and infection numbers plateaued at very high levels -- with the US averaging roughly 60,000 new cases daily in the past week. Multiple governors have eased Covid-19 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. One that Osterholm says will be fueled by the B.1.1.7 variant, first spotted in the UK, and will come over the next six to 14 weeks.
"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, who is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
"What we've seen in Europe, when we hit that 50% mark, you see cases surge," he said. ...
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