Delta spread would raise immunity threshold to nearly 90%

The The spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus has raised the herd immunity threshold well beyond 80% and potentially nearly 90%, according to a report released Tuesday by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

This represents a “much higher” threshold than previous estimates of 60% to 70%, because the delta is twice as transmissiblesaid Richard Franco, assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Delta variant: an interaction of 45 seconds is enough to infect, according to an infectious disease specialist

“It is becoming more and more clear that it is a very dangerous virus, much more dangerous than the originalsaid Franco.

The Collective immunity is based on the idea that when a certain percentage of the population has been vaccinated against the virus or receives immunity from a previous infection, helps protect the general population and reduces transmission.

Nearly 60% of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and about 50% have been fully immunized, which represents about 165 million people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, around 35 million people in the United States have tested positive for the virus during the pandemic.