Delta COVID-19 variant accounted for 35.4% of all the coronavirus cases reported in California in the month of June, authorities said. In May, only under 6% of coronavirus cases were caused by the variant, that was first identified in India. This increase by sixfold is a matter of concern, warn experts.
Delta Variant now more common than the alpha variant
Compared to previous variants, the Delta variant is more contagious and has resulted in a huge growth in coronavirus infections across the world. The Alpha variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, accounted for most of the coronavirus cases in California in the month of May. Now, the Alpha variant is the second most common strain behind the Delta variant in the state.
The ability of the variant to spread faster is bad news for the non-vaccinated population. In Los Angeles, almost 4 million people are yet to be vaccinated.
According to health experts, vaccinating more and more citizens is the only effective solution to control the spread of the deadly Delta variant.
For example, the Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective against the Delta variant. But as per experts, even fully vaccinated citizens are not completely free of the risk.
As Delta variant spreads nationwide, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said that recent data show that 25% of analyzed coronavirus cases nationwide are of the Delta variant, Los Angeles Times reported.
The report said that from May 9 to May 22, Delta comprised less than 3% of analyzed coronavirus samples nationwide.
Meanwhile, there are reports of rapidly increasing Delta cases confirmed in Los Angeles County. The county started seeing the variant spread in early April. In May, the county had less than 20 identified Delta cases a week, but by June, there were 60 to 80, said the report.
