TAMPA, Fla. — As Florida hits a milestone of 500 U.K. variant infections on Thursday, scientists worry the variant could take over.
"It looks like it's doing what it did in London, but at a slower rate," Dr. Thomas Unnasch with USF Public Health said.
Florida continues to be the top state in the country for U.K. variant cases. The state also has one case of the variant out of Brazil.
Case numbers continue to fall across the country, but Florida's are falling at a slower rate.
"It could be because of the variants. At 14%, we may be starting to see some evidence of the increased infectivity this thing," Unnasch said.
This as the U.S. finds homegrown mutations of COVID-19. One in California, the other in New York.
Scientists say California's variant found in December is more contagious. New York's was just identified after cases of the variant spiked in the last two weeks. It's still unclear if it's more transmissible.
"We don't know whether it's more transmissible, but we see it rising in prevalence within our patient population," Dr. David Ho with Columbia University said.
Ho says New York's mutation is similar to the more contagious variants out of South Africa and Brazil.
Those variants not a concern in Florida, but U.K. variant cases could push the state into a 4th wave.
"The potential peak would be at around 40,000 cases. That's what the models are predicting," Unnasch said.
Unnasch worries Florida could be in the same state London was in months ago.
"The first week in January, people were sitting in ambulances for six hours. They were rationing care. They were rationing and running out of oxygen. It was a nightmare scenario and it's not a place I want to go," Unnasch.
Wearing a mask and social distancing should help us buy some time for vaccines to work. Dr. Unnasch expects to see the impact of the UK variant in 4-6 weeks.
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