Scientists have found a new strain of COVID-19 in England. This new strain is expected to put more people in the hospital. As well as take over as being the more common version of the virus in the U.S. Even with the current state of vaccination, it is believed by scientists that there will be a spike in cases in March.

This new strain of COVID-19 was found in Southern England around September of 2020 when it became the most common strain in England and eventually spread to other places in Europe like Denmark and the Netherlands. In these places, more restrictive lockdowns have been put in place with hospitals being filled to a higher capacity. It is suspected that this new strain will make up about 50% of all cases in the U.S. by March. Although for now there have only been around 80 cases known in the U.S. that have this new strain.

If there was a major slowdown in the distribution of the vaccine, there could be a major spike in cases due to the more contagious version of the virus in March. Although, most likely that won’t happen because the vaccine is currently being distributed among states. (According to WebMD) “Vaccination of at least 1 million people in the U.S. each day would not stop the spread entirely, but it should cut the number of new daily cases at the peak by half — from an estimated 200,000 to 100,000”.

With the vaccine being pushed out and the new strain being more common than the last one, scientists don’t think we will be out of this trouble for a while longer. The CDC says that the vaccine combined with the practice of social distancing and consistent handwashing is the best way we can deal with the virus. The CDC could expect the peak to be cut by about two-thirds if the public was more pushing these practices.