The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is the “greatest threat” to America’s try to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned. Speaking at a White House briefing on COVID-19 on Tuesday, Fauci stated the variant, which was first recognized in India, now makes up more than 20 percent of all new cases in the US, an extensive increase from almost 10 percent weeks ago.

Despite having one of the maximum vaccination rates in the world, new daily infections in the US have doubled over the last weeks to a median of approximately 24,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nationally, 67.7 percent of American adults have received at least one COVID-19 jab, according to records from the CDC. The 5 states with the largest, -week jump in instances per capita all had decreased vaccination rates. But in spite of the latest surge, instances in the US are nowhere close to their top of 250,000 per day that was recorded in January – a testament to how successfully vaccines can save you serious illness and death in those who turn out to be infected. Still, the rise has induced health authorities in locations such as Los Angeles County and St Louis to induce residents, including the ones who’ve been vaccinated, to resume wearing masks in public. Officials in the town of Chicago introduced on Tuesday that unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas need to either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test, at the same time as the health branch in Mississippi, which ranks last for vaccinations, commenced blocking off COVID-19 posts on its Facebook web page amid a “rise of misinformation” about the virus and the vaccine.

The transmissibility of the highly contagious Delta variant is definitely greater than the wild type SARS-CoV2 in addition to the Alpha variant, Fauci stated, including that it is associated with extended sickness severity as reflected by hospitalization risk as compared to the Alpha variant.