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US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sara Eshleman via Flickr
The Delta variant continues to tighten its grip on the United States, including Minnesota, where more cases that undergo genomic sequencing are being identified as the variant that has fueled major health crises in under-vaccinated countries.
Nationally, Delta is causing explosive growth in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States, with The New York Times reporting that it now accounts for 83% of all cases analyzed – an increase from 52% it barely two weeks ago.
Nationwide cases have tripled from just over 12,000 a day two weeks ago to over 35,000 a day through July 19. Hospitalizations have increased 45% and deaths have increased 75% to over 320 per day.
While it is miles away from the sickening totals of the thousands of Americans who die each day from November through January, it is going in the wrong direction and mostly affecting the unvaccinated population of the country.
As of mid-June, 57% of cases sequenced in Minnesota have been the Delta variant, with the percentage rising to more than 75% since July 1, Minnesota Department of Health spokesman Scott Smith said.
Smith noted that the health department has identified a total of 268 Delta cases in Minnesota, of which 12% resulted in hospitalization and 2% in death. Of those with confirmed cases of Delta who were hospitalized or died, the “vast majority” were not vaccinated.
“We can confidently say that the vast majority of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in MN are unvaccinated people,” Smith said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, there have been 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County over the past week, 99% of them unvaccinated. Additionally, not all people hospitalized with COVID in Los Angeles public hospitals are vaccinated, according to the report.
This seems to be the general trend nationwide. Those most at risk for infection, serious illness, and potentially death are unvaccinated people. And epidemics are more likely in places with the lowest vaccination rates.
There has been almost no case of a “breakthrough” in Minnesota, that is, when a positive test occurs in a person who is fully vaccinated. (This means, at least 14 days after receiving either the second injection of Pfizer or Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson single injection vaccine.)
Smith said that “99.9% of people vaccinated in Minnesota have not developed COVID-19 based on our groundbreaking data.”
Data from the Department of Health shows that 53.3% of Minnesotans are fully vaccinated. That number rises to 64.9% of Minnesota’s population over 16 and 89.3% of the state’s population 65 and over.
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