COVID variants are continuing to spread throughout New Jersey, and according to experts, will keep mutating as long as many people remain unvaccinated.

Medical professionals at the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation are studying COVID-19 and all the variants in real-time. There are the U.K., South African, and Brazilian variants and mutations existing even within New Jersey, and experts are scrambling to track it all.

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Some treatments are not as effective against a certain strain prevalent right now in New York and New Jersey. Even within the Garden State, the virus mutates with outbreaks, infecting dozens. But not quite what you'd call a Jersey variant yet. This is why Dr. David Perlin is studying the virus in real time.

“While the virus is constantly one step ahead of us, we’re able to stay one step behind by utilizing all of our technology and what we're trying to do is narrow the gap,” says Dr. Perlin. “Individuals will respond to viral infection, they respond by mounting their own immune response. They mount neutralizing antibodies and the virus can evolve."

He also says as long as a chunk of the population is not vaccinated, the virus will mutate -- but so far, the vaccines are effective against the variants.