/ A dangerous coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly in Humboldt County, where younger people are getting sick with COVID-19 more often and more severely. County health officer Dr. Ian Hoffman recently reported that a variant called B.1.1.7, known as the U.K. variant, is causing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases that’s on par with winter surge levels. The variant has been present in the state and the U.S. for months. But detections of it have been at low levels and until this month, there were none in Humboldt County. But as restrictions were loosened in early April, B.1.1.7 was covertly spreading. And during a May 4 update to Humboldt’s Board of Supervisors, Hoffman said that “now the evidence is clear; B.1.1.7 was here and it has been here and now we are seeing the effects of a more contagious, more virulent form of the coronavirus.”