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Coronavirus Variants and state of COVID
The role of variants in extending the pandemic cannot be determined with complete certainty but we can make some reasonable educated guesses on how things will play out. All variants so far have been identified prior to the Christmas surge with some having been identified as early as last summer. The most notable ones were found to be circulating in greatest numbers prior to Christmas. But despite that, the case incidence has spiked and has since come back down. And the mutations apparently just made them more transmissible but has not proven to show a higher mortality.
Looking at the major variants and their regions of origin (UK, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, California), those areas seem to have seen a peak after Christmas and the incidence has since come down. Brazil is the only place where the decreases have not been drastic. But Brazil has been known to have enforced very little regulations.
Things may change and a "super mutant" that is capable of escaping recognition by the immune response elicited by all major vaccines is possible but the chances are small.