As of December of 2020, a new Covid-19 variant identified as the Delta variant was detected in India. This variant was found to be easier to fluctuate between individuals. In addition to this, the variant caused more illness and death than the original Covid-19 variant. Even vaccinated individuals are able to get severely sick with this variant. Nearly after this information, another variant was identified in South Africa. This was in December of 2021. The variant was named Omicron. Surprisingly, this variant was even more likely to spread than Delta. However, Omicron was seen to be a less common strain of the virus that individuals got. Both variants created a surge in cases at the end of 2021. So, as families started to get tested for their winter breaks and vacations, more cases were reported. Cases got to an extreme high in states like New York and New Jersey. Due to this, many individuals started to get boosted with another dose of a vaccine. During this time, boosters even started to become open to ages 12-15. They were being released faster than the original vaccines. Overall, the surge in cases got to a higher peak than January of 2020. Two weeks before this surge, the hospitalizations were lower, but then there was an increase in 83% of hospitalizations. Last year’s cases reached a high of 300% in peak. This year’s cases reached 321% in peak. The main cause was from the new variants that were more contagious. Cases started to become so frequent that there were about 737,000 just per day. 

As January began and cases finally began to lower slightly, a new variant was released named Deltacron. This variant had seemed to be a combination of the Delta and Omicron variant. However, experts are starting to claim that this variant may not be valid. They claim that this variant might have something to do with contamination. Even though many statistics could support this hypothesis, other numbers do not. Experts and scientists are still trying to investigate this variant more. Another variant was detected in France called the IHU variant. This variant has not been heard of yet as there is likelihood that this variant was caused by other factors or is not as impacting as Delta and Omicron. Experts classify this variant as not as significant or not concerning. With all the new variants, experts are unsure of what will occur next. Will there be an even larger surge? Or will vaccines and other ways of precaution be enough to decrease the cases?