CDC warns of delta variants of COVID-19 such as chickenpox and triggers more severe disease

New COVID-19 cases have jumped 151% in the last 14 days as of July 30 and now the US has an average of about 71,600 new infections a day.

“The number of cases we have now is higher than the number we had on any given day last summer,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, quoted from Health.

Then, along with the mandatory use of masks indoors for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the CDC also recommends that everyone in schools, whether students, staff, and visitors, must wear a mask, regardless of their vaccination status. In the document, the CDC also admits that they need to change their recommendations to get more Americans vaccinated.

While this is an extreme containment measure, the virus itself is extreme, Walensky said.

In the United States, COVID-19 cases briefly declined when Americans were vaccinated, dropping to around 11,000 per day in early June. But as the delta variant became the dominant strain in the US cases again spiked to levels not seen since February, when a vaccine was not available to all Americans. The largest increase in cases occurred in southern states such as Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida, all of which have the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced that all federal employees will be required to be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 tests. He urged everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“You’ll see stories about unvaccinated patients in hospitals, when they’re bedridden dying of COVID-19, they ask, ‘Doc, can I get the vaccine?’ Doctors have to say, ‘Sorry, it’s too late,'” Biden said Health.

What is clear, this Delta variant can cause more severe disease than the alpha strain or its predecessor, quoted from published data from Canada, Singapore and Scotland.

Data from the UK, Scotland, Canada and Israel show that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is between 93% and 100% effective in preventing hospitalization or death but 64% to 88% effective in preventing symptomatic disease of the delta variant.

What’s more, breakthrough cases will occur more frequently in gathering places and in groups where the vaccine is less potent, including immunocompromised or elderly people. The risk of hospitalization and death was higher among older adults compared to the younger population, regardless of vaccination status, the report said.

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