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As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus fuels epidemics in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that “this is becoming an unvaccinated pandemic.”
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain well below last winter’s peak, and vaccines are effective against Delta, but CDC director Dr Rochelle P. Walensky has urged people to get the full shot to receive strong protection, pleading, “Do it for yourself, your family and your community. And please do it to protect your young children who, at the moment, cannot get vaccinated on their own.
The number of new cases of the virus is likely to increase in the coming weeks, and those cases are likely to be concentrated in areas with low vaccination coverage, officials said during a White House briefing on the pandemic.
“Our biggest concern is that we will continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and, unfortunately, deaths among the unvaccinated,” said Dr Walensky. The nation surpassed 34 million cumulative cases on Friday, according to a New York Times database.
Delta now accounts for more than half of new infections across the country, and the number of cases has increased in every state. About 28,000 new cases are reported every day, up from just 11,000 a day less than a month ago.
So far, data suggests that many vaccines – including the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines – provide good protection against Delta, especially against worse outcomes, including hospitalization and death. (Receiving a single dose of a two-shot regimen, however, offers little protection against the variant.) Almost 60 percent of American adults have been fully immunized, but less than 50 percent of all Americans l ‘have been ; only 12 years old and over are eligible.
“We have come a long way in our fight against this virus,” Jeffrey D. Zients, the administration’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said during the briefing.
The pace of vaccination has slowed considerably since the spring and vaccination coverage remains very uneven. Delta is already increasing the number of cases in under-vaccinated areas, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The World Health Organization recently reiterated its recommendation that even those vaccinated should continue to wear masks, in part because of the global spread of Delta.
The CDC has maintained its mask guidelines, however, with Dr Walensky noting the global competence of the WHO and the fact that wealthy countries have scavenged so many of the available snapshots. She added that local authorities in the United States may opt for more stringent measures to protect the unvaccinated.
Los Angeles County said on Thursday it was reinstating an indoor mask warrant for everyone starting this weekend, regardless of vaccination status. Dr Walensky on Friday stressed the heterogeneous nature of the country and said “these decisions must be made at the local level”.
“If you have areas of low vaccination and high case rates, then I would say that local decision-makers might wonder if masking at this point would be something that would be useful for their community,” she added.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday that there are currently no plans to reintroduce an inside mask warrant for everyone across the city, nor did he think the move was necessary. The city reported a recent series of more than 400 cases per daycompared to around 200 per day on average just a few weeks ago. “We have to watch him like a hawk,” he said on a radio show, referring to the Delta variant.
Health officials are focusing on hospitalizations, he said, which have remained low in recent weeks. About 53 percent of the city’s residents are fully vaccinated, according to city data. If hospitalization rates rise, he said, the city will adapt.
“We don’t intend to change course at this point,” he said. “If we see something that we need to change, we will say it immediately and call people to arms. “
After narrowly missing the self-imposed goal of having 70% of adults at least partially immunized by July 4, the Biden administration is stepping up efforts to try to reach those who still haven’t received their vaccines. Authorities also recently announced the creation of “emergency response teams” to help hard-hit states deal with epidemics caused by the Delta. Missouri and Nevada have already asked for help.
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