Experts warn that this is how close the United States is to the potential for a Covid-19 surge.

According to epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, the United States is now in the “eyes of a hurricane.”

After months of devastation, authorities seemed to be heading in the right direction in weeks of reports. A sharp decrease in Covid-19 cases and a decrease in hospitalizations.

But now, the number of cases has stopped declining and the number of infections has peaked at a very high level. The average for the United States is about 60,000. New cases every day in the past week. Have multiple governors Relaxed Covid-19 safety measures despite health official warnings.. Spring break events have begun nationwide tIt threatens the possibility of further spread of the virus.

Experts predict that the country is about to see Another dangerous Covid-19 spike. What Osterholm says is fueled by the first discovered B.1.1.7 variant in the UK and will be available in the next 6-14 weeks.

“Four weeks ago, the B.1.1.7 variant accounted for about 1-4% of the viruses found in the national community,” said Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research Policy on Sunday. Told NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

“As we saw in Europe, above 50%, the number of cases surges,” he said.

Here’s what we know about the B.1.1.7 variant:

There are multiple variants of the coronavirus in the United States, but experts are particularly interested in the dangerous potential of the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in mid-January warning Subspecies cases are likely to show “rapid growth in early 2021” and are likely to become the predominant variant in the United States by this month, he added.

To date, the agency has reported cases of over 2,600 known variants in 46 states in Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. Almost a quarter of those cases are in Florida. However, the CDC states that it is likely to represent the total number of cases found by analyzing positive samples with the help of genomic sequencing, rather than the total number of such cases in the United States. ..

Infectious disease expert and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder told CNN on Sunday that a group of experts on Christmas Eve was attending an emergency meeting to discuss variants.

“Since then, we’ve been tracking it very closely,” she said. “It was really devastating where it hit in the UK and now elsewhere in Europe. It’s pushing up hospitalization and mortality rates and is very difficult to control.”

New research shows In the United States, this variant is 59% to 74% more infectious than the original coronavirus. Gounder said the incident in the United States “Exponentially increases.”

That’s why it’s important for the country To keep pushing to reduce Covid-19 infection. Vaccination numbers are not high enough to help curb the expected surge, experts warned that they will not be high enough in the coming weeks.

“It’s like we were running this really long marathon. We’re 100 yards away from the finish line and we sit down and give up,” Gounder said on Sunday. “We are just around the corner. We need to spend a little more time to cover most of our population with vaccines.”

“This is not just a personal choice.”

But just in the first week of March, Multiple governors announced They relaxed the restrictions set to control the spread of the virus.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Presentation He lifted the state-wide mask obligation, allowing businesses to reopen at 100% capacity starting Wednesday.Mississippi Governor Tate Rivers Similar announcementHe said he has abolished the county’s mask obligations and corporate capacity restrictions.

On Sunday, Reeves defended his decision, saying it was an unrealistic goal to completely eliminate the condition of Covid-19 cases, and that the number of Covid-19s that authorities were concerned about had all diminished. It was.

“In terms of data such as hospitalization, the number of Mississippian cultures in the ICU, and the number of Mississippian cultures using ventilators, we are looking much closer. All of these numbers are in the last two months. It plummeted in our state, “he told CNN.

Mr Reeves said the state is trying to protect life “not just to protect livelihoods.”

“We have to move the economy so that individuals can get back to work. I think it’s very important,” he said.

He said the governor encouraged residents to wear masks and “strongly” encouraged them, even if they were not obliged to wear masks.

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Public Health at Brown University, told ABC that the state’s responsibility is to maintain Mask’s obligations.

“This isn’t just a personal choice. It’s like I’m drinking and holding the steering wheel of a car. It’s not just my personal choice that puts my life at risk. Putting others Probably, people’s lives are at stake, “Jha said.

“Wearing a mask not only protects you, but also the people around you,” he added.

Less than 10% of fully vaccinated Americans

Health officials say the better time for the state to begin deregulating is when daily Covid-19 cases are significantly reduced — “quite less” than 10,000. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci — And the number of vaccinations is much higher.

To date, more than 58.8 million Americans have been vaccinated with at least one Covid-19 vaccine, according to the report. CDC vaccination data.

According to the data, more than 30.6 million people have received two doses. This is about 9.2% of the US population.

However, authorities expect vaccination to continue to increase in the coming months with the help of increased supply.

Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team, said on Sunday at MSNBC that sufficient vaccines would be produced for all adults by the end of May. The president also said last week The United States plans to vaccinate all adult Americans by the end of May. This will reduce the administration’s previous goals by two months.

“We will have enough vaccine, I think we said for 300 million Americans,” Slavit said on Sunday. “Currently, there are 250 million adults in this country, and now, as we know, most teens are unqualified and younger children are unqualified, so everything It’s more than enough for adults. “

Slavit added that vaccines are now moving from factories to weapons “very, very quickly” and the country is becoming more efficient in dose administration.

According to Forch, high school students in the country may be vaccinated by the fall, but younger students may have to wait a little longer.

“Currently, tests are being conducted to determine both the safety of high school students and their immunogenicity,” Forch told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “High school students, perhaps not on the first day, do predict that they will be able to get vaccinated by the fall semester early in the fall of that fall education period.”