Daily US Times: The spread of highly contagious Covid variants is threatening to fuel a “potential fourth surge of cases” in the United States, a top health official has warned.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said she was concerned by recent Covid-19 data.
She said about 70,000 new coronavirus cases a day were recorded last week, “a very high number”, adding that there were nearly 2,000 deaths a day in the same period.
Dr Rochelle Walensky said on Monday: “Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,”
“These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress,” she added.
There are many different versions, or variants, of coronavirus circulating, but health experts are particularly concerned about a few.
These include variants first detected in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa that appear to be more contagious.
The CDC has predicted the highly contagious B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant first found in the UK will become the dominant strain in the US this month.
Given this, the CDC director said she was “really worried” about reports of US states “rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19”.
She said: “We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country. Please stay strong in your conviction.”
The US has recorded more than 28 million coronavirus infections and 500,000 deaths related to Covid-19, according to World Health Organization.
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