The Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, discovered last December in India, is now the most dominant
strain of the coronavirus globally. It first appeared in the United States in March 2021 and within a
couple weeks it quickly replaced the alpha variant as the most dominant strain. The CDC estimates that
the delta variant is responsible for more than 90% of new COVID cases in the U.S. This is what you need
to know about the Delta Variant.
The Delta Variant is the most contagious strain yet
The Delta variant has multiple mutations making it more transmissible and dangerous. According to the
CDC, Delta is nearly twice as contagious as previous variants. Dr. Loren Miller, associate chief of
infectious disease at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Researcher at Lundquist Institute in Torrance, Ca,
explains why. It “sheds more virus into the air, making it easier to reach other people” Miller said on
ABC News. Additionally, studies have shown the “virus can more easily attach to human cells in the
respiratory tract.”
Last month, a study by epidemiologist Jing Lu at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control
and Prevention in Guangzhou, China was published in the journal Nature on the properties of the Delta
variant. He and his team found that the viral load, a measure of density of viral particles in the body, is
roughly 1,000 times higher in people infected with the Delta variant than in people infected with
previous strand of the virus. These factors not only increase the transmissibility of the strain, but the
severity of it as well.
Unvaccinated people and those with underlying medical conditions are of the greatest concern right
now. Nationwide, the majority of COVID-19 infections are among unvaccinated people and according to
the CDC, 97% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
Scientists are in the process of examining the severity of the delta variant, so we don’t know definitively
if it is causing more severe illness.
However, early data shows that Delta can make people sicker if they are unvaccinated. A study from
Scotland published in the journal The Lancet found that people who were vaccinated had a 60% less risk
of being hospitalized than their unvaccinated counterparts.
Vaccines still provide strong protection against the Delta variant and vaccinated people who do test
positive for COVID-19 experience very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Very rarely does it result in
hospitalization or death.
With the surge of the new Delta variant the CDC has reinstated its recommendation that everyone, both
vaccinated and unvaccinated, wear masks when in public places as well as follow other prevention
strategies available to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Peach Medical Sourcing is committed to doing its part to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus. Peach
Medical Sourcing’s PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and testing solutions can be found here.
References:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/delta-variant-things-surging-coronavirus-strain/story?id=79150425
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/covid-b-1-617-2-delta-variant-what-we-know.html
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
PeachMedical Corp
