- The highly infectious Delta variant may cause higher rates of breakthrough infections, but fully vaccinated people are still well protected against severe illness.
- After a sharp drop in coronavirus cases throughout the first half of the year, cases began to spike again in July as Delta took over. This variant now accounts for the vast majority of new infections.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that Delta is “likely more severe” than earlier versions of the coronavirus.
- An outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, that included vaccinated people helped reveal how infectious the Delta variant could be.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus has quickly changed the direction of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
After a sharp drop in coronavirus cases throughout the first half of the year, cases began to spike again in July as Delta took over. This variant now accounts for the vast majority of new infections.
This is occurring even with almost half of people in the United States being fully vaccinated — although that means over half are unvaccinated, including children under 12, who aren’t yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Still, the variant has challenged the country’s pandemic response in ways that were unexpected a few months ago.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that Delta is “likely more severe” than earlier versions of the virus, according to an internal report made public on July 30. Researchers caution that more work is needed to sort this out.
But the Delta variant has already proven itself to be highly transmissible — on par with chickenpox, the CDC said in its report — with cases rising sharply throughout the United States, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
A recent study published in July as a preprint also found that people with a coronavirus infection from Delta carried 1,000 times more virus in their bodies than people with an infection from the original coronavirus variant.
As a result of the variant’s high transmissibility, states like Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and Florida are seeing sharp increases in cases, with rising hospitalizations not far behind.
The variant also appears to be causing higher rates of breakthrough infections — or infections in people who are fully vaccinated — than earlier versions of the virus, with concerning signs that some vaccinated people may be able to easily transmit the virus.
An outbreak in Massachusetts made headlines after many vaccinated people were affected, although very few were hospitalized for the illness and none died.
In spite of these challenges, the COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United States still offer strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death caused by Delta and other variants.
But ongoing surges of the Delta variant put unvaccinated and immunocompromised people at risk, threaten to overwhelm hospital systems, and increase the chance of another variant emerging.
Here are some key things to know about the Delta variant’s transmissibility and how it’s affecting the COVID-19 vaccines.
Source: healthline