Covax distributes 20 million doses of vaccine 0:32
(CNN) - The
United States is in the "eye of the hurricane" right now, according to epidemiologist Michael Osterholm.
After months of devastation, things seemed to be going in the right direction when officials reported several weeks of steep declines in covid-19 cases and the number of hospitalizations dropped.
But now the decline in cases has stopped and the number of infections has stabilized at very high levels, averaging about 60,000 new cases a day in the US over the past week.
There could be a new wave of coronavirus.
Several governors have relaxed security measures against COVID-19 despite warnings from health officials.
Spring break events are kicking off across the country, threatening the possibility of further spread of the virus.
Experts project that the country is about to see another dangerous wave of coronavirus.
One that Osterholm says will be powered by variant B.1.1.7, first seen in the UK, and will arrive over the next six to 14 weeks.
“Four weeks ago, variant B.1.1.7 constituted between 1 and 4% of the virus that we saw in communities across the country.
Today it is between 30 and 40%, ”Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota, told NBC's“ Meet the Press ”Sunday.
"What we've seen in Europe is that when we hit that 50% mark, you see an increase in cases," he said.
This Mexican robot joins the fight against covid-19 0:35
This is what we know about variant B.1.1.7 and how it would be related to a new wave of coronavirus
While there are multiple coronavirus variants circulating in the US, experts have been particularly concerned about the dangerous potential of the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant.
advertising
In mid-January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that cases of the variant would likely experience "rapid growth in early 2021," adding that it would likely become the predominant variant in the US in this month.
MIRA: United Kingdom seeks to accelerate vaccines against covid-19 modified for variants
So far, the agency has reported more than 2,600 known cases of the variant in 46 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC.
Almost a quarter of those cases are in Florida.
But the CDC has said that it probably does not represent the total number of such cases in the US, but only those that have been found by testing positive samples, with the help of genomic sequencing.
Infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN on Sunday that she was at an emergency meeting that a group of experts held on Christmas Eve to discuss the variant.
"We have been following him very closely since then," he said.
'Where it has hit in the UK and now in other parts of Europe, it has really been catastrophic.
It has increased the rates of hospitalizations and deaths and it is very difficult to control.
New research shows that in the US, the variant is 59% to 74% more transmissible than the original new coronavirus.
Gounder says that cases in the United States are "increasing exponentially."
That is why it is crucial that the country continues to push to reduce COVID-19 infections.
Vaccination numbers are not yet high enough, and will not be high enough for several weeks, to help suppress the expected increase, experts warned.
"It's like we've been running this really long marathon, and we're 100 yards from the finish line, we sit back and give up," Gounder said Sunday.
"We're almost there, we just need to give ourselves a little more time to ensure that a greater proportion of the population is covered with vaccines."
LOOK: Questions from the audience about coronavirus: Should masks be worn in an outdoor meeting with physical distancing?
A new wave of coronavirus: 'It's not just a personal choice'
But just in the first week of March, several governors announced they were loosening restrictions to help slow the spread of the virus.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he would lift the statewide mask mandate and allow businesses to reopen at 100% capacity beginning Wednesday.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves made a similar announcement, saying he was eliminating county mask mandates and capacity limits for businesses.
On Sunday, Reeves defended his decision, saying that trying to completely eliminate the status of Covid-19 cases would be an unrealistic goal, and the Covid-19 numbers that officials were concerned about had dropped.
Doctor explains why nothing has changed with the vaccine 0:53
“We looked much more closely from a data point of view at hospitalizations, the number of Mississippi residents in ICUs, the number of Mississippi residents on ventilators… all of those numbers have plummeted in our state in the last two months. "He told CNN.
Reeves said the state has tried to protect lives "but also protect livelihoods."
"We have to jump-start our economy so that people can go back to work, and I think that's vitally important," he said.
And even without mask mandates, the governor said he recommends and "strongly" encourages residents to wear masks.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, told ABC that it is the responsibility of the states to keep the mask mandates in place.
"This is not just a personal choice, it is like drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car, it is not just a personal decision that would risk my life, I would be putting other people's lives at risk," said Jha .
"When you put on a mask you are not only protecting yourself, you are protecting the people around you," he added.