COVID Variant Cases Peaking in Florida After Spring Break
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 21: People gather while exiting the area as an 8pm curfew goes into effect on March 21, 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida. College students have arrived in the South Florida area for the annual spring break ritual, prompting city officials to impose an 8pm to 6am curfew as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Miami Beach police have reported hundreds of arrests and stepped up deployment to control the growing spring break crowds. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Joe Raedle/Getty Images

COVID variant cases have risen in Florida after spring break, with more than 10,000 variant cases reported.

Variant cases from three strains such as the B.1.1.7, the P.1, and the B. 1.3.5.1. have accounted for a total of 753 variant cases on March 14, according to the variant infection data.

Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health does not disclose variant cases on its public dashboard, according to an ABC News Go report.

On April 15, cases have increased to 5,177 cases from five types of different variants. This then jumped to 9,248 on April 27.

COVID Variants in Florida

Scientists in Florida said they are observing closely whether the P.1.1 COVID variant sticks around and how infectious it becomes.

"We have just two cases in Florida that have the extra mutation, and what that means remains to be seen," Marco Salemi of the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute, was quoted in a South Florida Sun-Sentinel report.

Salemi added that if cases increase to 500, it will be concerning.

He also noted that they do not know if the new mutations are going to make current variants more or less aggressive.

Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, said that it is hard to come up with an explanation for why Florida is the leading state for variants.

Teng contributed the surge to Florida's large international airports, as well as high volume of visitors from Latin American and European countries.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Olayemi Osiyemi said that among the COVID variants that they worry about is the Brazilian strain and the Indian strain.

Palm Beach County is noting the fourth highest number of variant cases with more than 600 reported.

In addition, it was observed that cases in the county were spiking around 82 percent among people five to 54-years-old, according to a CBS 12 News report.

David Scott, lead researcher at the Palm Beach Research Center, said that his main question is whether the unfortunate deaths of patients to variants and whether or not they had taken and received the vaccine.

COVID Vaccines

COVID vaccines are still under scrutiny about how effective they are against varinats.

Chinese-developed, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca have shown promising effectiveness in Brazil.

Meanwhile, Moderna has earlier announced its development on its booster shot for the COVID vaccine, with a promising immune response against the South African and Brazilian variants.

Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, noted that nothing is 100 percent in this world.

Gronvall furthered that it is possible more variants might emerge that are not covered by the vaccine, which is why it is important that these cases are investigated.

Jacques Ravel, associate director for genomics at the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences, echoed Gronvall's sentiments.

Ravel said that they are not 100 percent sure that even if people are vaccinated, they actually had mounted an immune response, according to a Voice of America News report.

WATCH: Florida Surpasses 2 Million Covid Cases -from NBC Nightly News