COVID seems to be all of the talk nowadays, as it took the world by storm. More and more people are getting vaccinated, and as more people receive the vaccine, the CDC has been opening up their restrictions for fully vaccinated people. Masks are still required in public, however if you and someone else have been vaccinated and are in a closed building, it is safe to be near each other without masks. The CDC also switched their rules from 6 feet social distancing to 3 feet social distancing.

The vaccines are now opening up to more and more people, and president Joe Biden says, “As of May 1st, every adult will be eligible to get the vaccine.”  However, just as things started to get better, and slowly back to normal, a new problem has occurred.

A new strain of COVID-19 has been found in the UK. Different strains have been found around the world, but nothing as deadly as this one. The CDC says the UK identified the variant as “B.1.1.7”. It was found in the UK during the fall of 2020. This strain is becoming more well known because the CDC says “This variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants.” Not only does it spread easily, and faster than regular COVID-19, it tends to have a higher death rate, and it makes people more sick.

As mentioned before, many variants of the corona virus have been found, but since this one is more deadly, and people are more likely to die from it than COVID-19 and its other variants, the CDC compared it to another strain. There is a strain that surfaced in South Africa during October 2020, so right around the time variant B.1.1.7 was discovered. The strain in South Africa was labeled B.1.351. When it was compared to B.1.1.7, the CDC said “The two variants share some mutations.” However, it was evident that the strain from the UK was more deadly than the one from South Africa. It has reached the U.S, but there is hope that things can calm down before it spreads more.