Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Delta Dominates US Covid Cases: Just 17% Are Other Variants
The Hill: CDC Director: Delta Variant Accounts For 83 Percent Of All COVID-19 Cases In US
The delta variant of the novel coronavirus is now responsible for 83 percent of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday. That estimate is a major increase from just over two weeks ago. For cases tallied during the week of July 3, the CDC estimated the delta variant accounted for about 50 percent of new infections. (Weixel, 7/20)
CIDRAP: Delta COVID-19 Variant Now 83% Of US Cases
The Delta (B1617.2) variant, first detected in India and now sweeping the globe, represents 83% of COVID-19 sequenced samples in United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, who testified today in a Senate committee hearing on the pandemic. "This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% for the week of July 3," Walensky said. "In some parts of the country the percentage is even higher, particularly in areas of low vaccination rates." Walensky explained that the pandemic in the United States was not affecting the unvaccinated. (Soucheray, 7/20)
CBS News: Delta Variant Accounts For 83% Of COVID Cases In U.S., CDC Director Says
In Florida, hospitals are preparing for the worst. At Miami's Jackson Health System, there's been a 111% jump in COVID patients over the last two weeks, meaning most visitors will be banned. About 95% of patients with the virus who are being treated there are unvaccinated. "It's frustrating. It's passed beyond sadness," said Alix Zacharski, a nurse manager at the hospital. "The amount of disease they go through is incredible it's terrible, it's absolutely terrible." Zacharski says the patients are coming in younger, and with the Delta variant, they're getting sicker, faster. "We just got a very young patient in her 20s. She has asthma, did not get vaccinated, and she ended up passing out, passing away," she said. (Bojorquez, 7/20)
