Coronavirus
COVID-19 Cases are Dropping, but Variants Point to Dangers Ahead
The number of Americans testing positive for the coronavirus has dropped substantially from an early January zenith, easing the strain on hospitals across the nation that faced danger over the winter holidays.
But new and more transmissible strains of the coronavirus are circulating more widely across the world, and public health experts caution that, even with the beginnings of mass vaccination programs, the public must be more vigilant than ever in protecting themselves and reducing the spread.
“This is the calm before the real storm. I think the darkest days of the pandemic are just ahead of us,” said Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention at the University of Minnesota.
