ORLANDO, Fla. — Spring break is in full swing here in the Sunshine State, and some doctors are concerned about what that could do to the COVID-19 case counts because of the U.K. variant.
More specifically, the concern isn’t these spring breakers bringing the variant here. That’s because the variant is already in our state.
In fact, Florida has the most recorded cases of the highly contagious U.K. strain in the United States.
The concern is that when these tourists go home, they could be taking this new strain home with them, and that could have an adverse reaction to the vaccination effort.
“Spring break in Florida can spell a disaster to other parts of the country,” said internist Dr. Aftab Khan.
“The dominant variant here in Florida now is this more transmissible so-called U.K. variant,” said University of South Florida virus expert, Dr. Michael Teng. “People that are coming down for spring break are going to take this variant back.”
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Teng stated that the latest sequencing shows the U.K. variant accounts for more than 50% of new cases in Florida, and no state comes close to Florida’s case count of this variant.
Some doctors said this could cause the variant to become dominant across the entire country.
“By the end of March or early April, it can lead to another surge,” said Khan.
“Anytime you get young people together that are drinking and, you know, congregating at bars and restaurants, it’s going to be an increased chance of transmission,” Teng said.
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Some experts said that the growing number of people getting vaccinated may help lessen the scare of another surge from this strain.
“We know that only 11.6% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated and most of them are elderly. Most of the young adults are not vaccinated,” said Teng.
It is important to note that despite the U.K. variant being prominent in Florida, the U.S. has not seen an explosion of cases like the U.K. did in December. Some experts said the cases have plateaued, and hospitalizations continue to decline.
Doctors continue to stress that although the current vaccines may be less effective against some variants, they still provide a strong level of protection.
Several vaccine makers are working on an updated vaccine or booster shot to battle these strains.