“These communities, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest, are our most vulnerable,” Dr. Walensky said. “In some of these areas, we are already seeing increasing rates of disease. As the delta variant continues to spread across the country, we expect to see increased transmissions in these communities, unless we can vaccinate more people now.”
Currently, about 25 percent of all cases sequenced in the U.S. are positive for the highly transmissible delta strain, which was first detected in India. In some areas, the variant makes up about 50 percent of new cases. Health officials said they anticipate delta will soon surpass the alpha variant, first detected in the U.K., as the dominant circulating strain.
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, underlined mRNA vaccines are effective against the variant, pointing to research that showed vaccines’ ability to protect against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization.
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