Medical experts expected it to happen. It’s something all viruses eventually do. So, when COVID-19 first mutated in the United Kingdom, it was just a matter of time before the variant spread to the United States.

As of January 18, there are 122 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – and 46 of them are in Florida.

The Sunshine State is leading the nation in new cases.

California has 40 cases.

Colorado has six.

“Obviously, Florida being a center where many people travel from all around the world and all around the country makes it easier for diseases to come from other places and spread,” said Dr. Antonio Crespo, and infectious disease physician at Orlando Health.

The CDC also makes clear these numbers are based on just a sampling of specimens, and the actual number of cases could be higher. In fact, the number of confirmed cases in Florida more than doubled since last week.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (January 18, 2021)

Officials say this variant is more contagious than the original strain of COVID-19 that spread rapidly around the globe, but the CDC says “there is no evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death.” The CDC is concerned, however, that “an increase in the number of cases will put more strain on health care resources, lead to more hospitalizations, and potentially more deaths.”

According to the CDC, different variants have also popped up in South Africa and Brazil. The one in Brazil “contains a set of additional mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.”

But there’s still a lot that health experts don’t know. The CDC says it’s still trying to figure out the following:

How widely the new variants have spread

How the disease caused by the variants differs from the one caused by the original strain

How the variants affect existing therapies and vaccines

To the question of whether the current vaccines work to prevent infection from the COVID variants, President-elect Joe Biden's nominee to lead the CDC says they will have an effect.

"I just want to remind people, almost no vaccine we have is 95% effective. “So, before we panic and say should I really get the vaccine if it's not going to work against the variant, it's going to work against the variant," Dr. Rochelle Walensky told the American Medical Association.