Delta variant Coronavirus disease U.S. officials said on Friday that the virus is now the main strain of the virus worldwide, and the death toll has soared across the United States, almost entirely of unvaccinated people.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference that the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has increased by 70% from the previous week, and the number of deaths has increased by 26%. Briefings on outbreaks in some areas with low vaccination rates.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average daily number of cases over 7 days now exceeds 26,000, which is more than double the June low of approximately 11,000.
“This is becoming an unvaccinated epidemic,” she said, adding that 97% of COVID-19 people in the United States who enter hospitals are not vaccinated.
Varensky said that more and more counties in the United States are now showing a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, reversing the trend of significant decline in transmission risk in recent months.
Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said that about one-fifth of new cases have occurred in Florida.
Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease expert in the United States, said that the Delta variant is more infectious than the original variant of COVID-19. It has been detected in about 100 countries/regions and is now the main variant in the world.
Fauci said on the phone: “We are dealing with a powerful variant of COVID-19.”
Walensky urged unvaccinated Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and said that Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have been shown to be particularly effective against the Delta variant.
She said that even if people have passed the recommended vaccination window, they should get a second dose of the vaccine.
Zients said that in the past 10 days, about 5 million people in the United States have been vaccinated, including states with low vaccination rates so far.
He added that the United States has enough vaccines on hand to receive booster vaccines, but it is still working to determine whether booster vaccines are needed.
— Additional report by Lisa Lambert
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