The British variant of the coronavirus could become the predominant strain in the United States by March, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday.
So far, only 76 cases of the variant, called B.1.1.7, have been identified in the country, in ten countries, the CDC said.
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But models project that the variant could see rapid growth in the coming months, which will further hamper the healthcare system.
“We are very concerned about this variant,” said Michael Johansson, co-author of the study and co-leader of the modeling team for the CDC’s Covid-19 response.
Johansson said the CDC is working to increase more efforts to test such variants in the US
The report comes as the US still sees cases exceeding 200,000 every day. Thursday was the third consecutive day that more than 3,000 people in the United States died from Covid-19, with a daily total of 3,957. Hospital systems across the country are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients.
There is no evidence to suggest that the British variant could make people sicker. But a faster spread will generally lead to more cases, the authors of the study wrote: “the burden on an already strained healthcare system will worsen and result in more deaths.”
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The increased contagion of the variant means the U.S. needs to double its mitigation strategies, including distancing and masking, as well as increasing vaccination rates, the CDC said.
“The increased portability of the B.1.1.7 variant justifies universal and increased adherence to mitigation strategies, including distancing and masking,” the study authors wrote.
The CDC wrote that the mitigation measures are a rapid roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, and that it is crucial to delay the initial spread of the British variant, the CDC said.
“We know that people are tired and discouraged about what happened to this pandemic,” Johansson said. “But we know we can act decisively now, and we can turn the corner and really help prevent another wave from coming in the spring.”
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