(CNN)Much of America’s recent progress against Covid-19 has been erased as new infections jump nationwide. Now the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she’s afraid of what will happen next.
“What we’ve seen over the last week or so is a steady rise of cases,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Monday. “I know that travel is up, and I just worry that we will see the surges that we saw over the summer and over the winter again.”
But now, the troubling B.1.1.7 variant strain is spreading more rapidly in the US. That strain isn’t just more contagious, health experts say. It appears to be deadlier as well.
And the combination of young, carefree revelers and states ditching safety mandates has helped send the country backward, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.