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Hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults in their 30s and 40s admitted with severe cases of Covid-19, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. “Data suggests this is all happening as we are seeing increasing prevalence of variants, with 52 jurisdictions now reporting cases of variants of concern,” Walensky said at a press briefing on the pandemic. (Mendez, 4/7)

The number of new Covid-19 cases has plateaued at a "disturbingly high level," and the US is at risk from a new surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Wednesday. Although off the highs of earlier this year, there were still more than 61,000 new cases reported on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And the lack of continued significant decreases in infections is a concern, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN's Anderson Cooper, particularly given the spread of variants. (Holcombe, 4/8)

As states lift restrictions and worrisome coronavirus variants spread, scientists and federal health officials have been warning that a new wave of cases could arise in the United States even as the nation’s vaccination campaign gathers speed. The seeds of such a surge may now be sprouting in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. Michigan is already in tough shape. New cases and hospitalizations there have more than doubled in the last two weeks. The six metro areas in the United States with the greatest number of new cases relative to their population are all in Michigan. (Ngo and Stolberg, 4/8)

Michigan hospitals are responding to a third surge of COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began early last year that has been highlighted by a larger percentage of admissions of younger patients under 65 who are mostly unvaccinated. Hospital admissions are up 51% since the end of March — increasing for all age groups and all regions — but are highest for those 50-59 years old. The numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units also have increased 43%, the state Department of Health and Human Services said in its March 30 report. (Greene, 4/7)

Amid Michigan’s worst-in-the-nation coronavirus surge, scientists and public health officials are urging the Biden administration to flood the state with additional vaccine doses. So far, though, their plea has fallen on deaf ears. Instead, the federal government is sticking to a vaccine-allocation strategy that largely awards doses to states and territories based on their population. As a result, most jurisdictions are still receiving similar per-capita vaccine supplies, regardless of how many people there are getting sick — or how many excess vaccine doses they have. (Facher, 4/8)