UK coronavirus variant now accounts for 10% of US cases, CDC director says

The coronavirus variant first detected in the U.K. late last year now accounts for up to 10% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., officials said Friday.

The recent trend of declining rates of hospitalization admissions, new cases and deaths has started to level off, she said, signaling a "concerning shift in trajectory." Walensky added that the declines had followed the highest peak the country had seen during the pandemic. The CDC is also monitoring the discovery of two new variants, one in New York and the other in California, which "also appear to spread more easily and were contributing to a large fraction of infection in those areas," Walensky said.