The novel coronavirus variant originally discovered in the United Kingdom is now the most dominant strain in the United States, according to NBC News.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday that the U.K. variant — which is also known as the B.1.1.7 variant — has begun to dominate the country.
- “Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States,” Walensky said, New York magazine reports.
The new variant appears to be hitting day care centers and youth sports in the U.S., according to NBC News.
- “Hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults — those in their 30s and 40s — admitted with severe disease,” Walensky said, according to NBC News.
Predictions of the U.K. variant
The CDC predicted in January that the novel coronavirus variant from the U.K. would become the dominant U.S. strain within two months, which I wrote about for the Deseret News. Of course, that would have made the variant the dominant strain in March. We’re now in April, so the prediction was slightly off.
But professor Sharon Peacock at University of Cambridge told BBC News in February that the coronavirus mutation found in the United Kingdom would be the most dominant strain in the world soon enough.
She said at the time that the variant “swept the country” and “it’s going to sweep the world, in all probability.”