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The Oregon Health Authority said Thursday it estimates the highly infectious delta variant is now responsible for 50% of all new COVID-19 cases in the state.
The variant’s meteoric rise in Oregon reflects an increase in the rest of the United States, although federal officials have been quicker to report the strain’s prevalence.
On July 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the delta was the source of 51% of infections. On Tuesday, the CDC said that figure had risen to 83%, far more than the share estimated in Oregon. Delta was first detected in India and is formerly known as B.1.617.2.
The prevalence of the delta variant in Oregon, as nationally, is only an estimate as only a small portion of COVID-19 cases – over 5% in Oregon, officials say – are analyzed for variants. The state’s official tally of cases known to be caused by the delta variant now stands at 90.
During the week with the most recently available data – July 4-10 – the health authority reported the results of its analysis of the variants of concern: 21 cases were caused by the delta variant and 15 cases caused by the variant. alpha. Four other cases that were analyzed were not variants of concern.
The Oregon Health Authority did not immediately respond to questions to clarify whether this meant that only 40 infections had been analyzed this week for variants.
The emergence of the delta variant in Oregon follows that of the alpha variant – which was first detected in the UK and formerly known as B.1.1.7. Alpha dominated COVID-19 cases in Oregon from April through June.
A recent study found that people infected with the delta became contagious faster and exhaled around 1,000 times the viral load into the air than people infected with the dominant strain circulating last year. Delta is believed to be at least twice as contagious as the dominant strain last year.
“This means the risk of COVID-19 has never been higher in unvaccinated populations,” health authority spokeswoman Erica Heartquist wrote in an email Thursday to The Oregonian / OregonLive. “We encourage all households with vaccinated and unvaccinated members, such as children, to remember that unvaccinated members of our community are at risk and to take appropriate precautions – masking, distancing, avoiding gatherings with people not vaccinated. “
Health Authority Director Patrick Allen and State Epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger will hold a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the increase in COVID-19 cases in Oregon , which, after two months of steady decline in late spring and early summer, began to increase in early July. The seven-day moving average of cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks.
Come back to OregonLive.com to hear what Allen and Sidelinger had to say.
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– Aimée Verte; [email protected]; @o_aimee
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