The CDC announced that the number of Covid–19 cases in the United States spiked 10 percent this week as the highly contagious delta variant spread further.
According to NBC News, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing, that the country’s lagging vaccination rate and the rapid spread of the “hyper-transmissible” delta variant,” that was first detected in India, could account for the sudden increase.
Scientists believe the delta variant is about 60 percent more transmissible than the alpha variant which is currently the dominant strain in the U.S. The alpha strain was first detected in the United Kingdom, and is described as more contagious than the original virus strain.
The delta variant now accounts for 25 percent of all new cases, and has already been detected in all 50 states. Walensky warned that the rapid spread is sure to make it the dominant strain in the country in a few weeks.
“We don’t want to alarm people,” she told NBC News, “but we follow these numbers really, really carefully.”
