A group of men read public safety precautions while enjoying the bars and restaurants on South Beach during Spring Break amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Miami, Florida, March 27, 2021.
Yana Paskova | Reuters
Hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults in their 30s and 40s admitted with severe cases of Covid-19, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday.
“Data suggests this is all happening as we see an increasing prevalence of variants, with 52 jurisdictions now reporting cases of variants of concern,” Walensky said at a news conference on the pandemic.
Scientists say new variants of the coronavirus are more transmissible and some can also be more deadly, leading to more serious cases.
The highly contagious B.1.1.7 variety from the United Kingdom has become the dominant strain circulating in the United States, Walensky said.
Walensky previously warned that traveling for spring break could lead to another surge in cases, especially in Florida, where the variant spread rapidly.
“I beg you, for the sake of our country’s health,” Walensky said at a briefing last month. “Cases climbed last spring, they climbed again in the summer, they will climb now if we stop taking precautions as we get more and more people vaccinated.”
The B.1.1.7 variant has since spread and now accounts for more than 16,000 cases in 52 jurisdictions across the country. The variant is about 50% more transmissible than the original wild strain of the coronavirus.