Delta variant: here’s why it spreads much faster

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The variant is spreading around 55% faster than the alpha strain that was first identified in the UK at the end of last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – and this strain is spreads about 50% faster than the version that started to infect. people at the end of 2019.
“We should consider the Delta variant as the 2020 version of Covid-19 on steroids,” Andy Slavitt, former senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid response team, told CNN last week.

Here’s what else you need to know about the variant, including why it’s spreading so quickly.

The Delta strain was first identified in India in December 2020.

It quickly became the dominant variant, crushing the country’s healthcare system.

He was identified in the UK shortly thereafter.

“This is the most contagious version of the virus that we have seen throughout the pandemic,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “It’s really, really contagious.”

Now it has spread to all 50 US states

The first case in the United States was identified in March, and by early July it represented more than half of the cases tested in the country. It now accounts for 83% of cases in the United States, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“This is a dramatic increase, compared to 50% for the week of July 3,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday at a Senate committee hearing.

The Delta variant has been found in all 50 US states.

That’s behind an increase, mostly among unvaccinated people in the country – the average of new daily cases this week is up 55% from last week, with cases rising in 46 States Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Hospitalizations have increased 52% in the past 14 days.

The strain continues to spread rapidly

How does the virus spread so quickly? A study suggests that the Delta variant can be transmitted faster than other strains because it makes more copies of itself inside our bodies at a faster rate.
More than 91 million people live in US counties heavily infected with Covid-19. Time to reset and put the masks back on, expert says

When Chinese scientists compared dozens of cases of delta to strains from the start of the pandemic, they found that patients with the Delta variant had viral loads 1,260 times higher.

“There are so many more viruses around, infected people have such high viral loads, but even short periods of time – five minutes, seven minutes, you don’t even have to be within six feet.” , Jha said.

“For unvaccinated people, they get infected with much, much shorter exposure.”

Vaccines available in the United States have been shown to be effective against the Delta variant. Although there are revolutionary cases, people who are fully vaccinated rarely get very sick.

But less than half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows, and the CDC warns of an “unvaccinated pandemic.”

“If you are not vaccinated you are at great risk right now,” said surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy. “And you should take measures if you are not vaccinated, such as masking yourself, walking away, avoiding gatherings indoors.”

More than 97% of people hospitalized with Covid-19 are now unvaccinated, Walensky said last week.

And 99.5% of deaths are among the unvaccinated, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy said on Sunday.

Getting people vaccinated as quickly as possible, said Murthy, “is our fastest and most effective way out of this pandemic.”

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