The Delta variant of Covid-19 is now the dominant strain worldwide, accompanied by a surge of deaths around the United States (US) almost entirely among unvaccinated people, US officials said on Friday.
US cases of coronavirus are more than 70 per cent over the previous week and deaths are up 26 per cent, with outbreaks happening in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing.
“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said, adding that 97 per cent of people entering hospitals in the US with Covid-19 are unvaccinated.
The Delta variant, which is significantly more contagious than the original variant of the virus, has been reported around 100 countries globally and is now the dominant variant worldwide, top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said.
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“We are dealing with a formidable variant” of Covid-19, Fauci said.
Walensky has urged the unvaccinated people to get Covid-19 shots and said Pfizer Inc’s and Moderna Inc’s vaccines have proven to be especially effective against the Delta variant.
She said people should get the second dose of the vaccine even if they have passed the recommended window of time for receiving it.
