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The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for more than 51 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according 

 released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The variant, also known as B.1.617.2, was first detected in India and is spreading quickly across the globe.

And in parts of the U.S., the delta strain accounts for more than 80 percent of new infections, including some Midwestern states like Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.

The delta variant is already causing 74.3 percent of infections in Western states, including Utah and Colorado, and 58.8 percent of infections in Southern states like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to CDC estimates.

About the delta variant

The good news is the vaccines being used in the U.S. all appear to be highly effective at protecting against serious disease, hospitalization and death. And public health officials are urging the roughly 140 to 150 million people who remain unvaccinated to get vaccinated.

"Right now we have two Americas: the vaccinated and the unvaccinated America," 

an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"We're feeling pretty good right now because it's the summer. But come winter, if we still have a significant percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, we're going to see this virus surge again," Offit says.

And it's crucial to increase vaccinations in other countries,

, a vaccine researcher at Yale. "The world has to get its act together," Omer says. "Otherwise yet another, potentially more dangerous, variant could emerge."  

Health

COVID-19

Jane Greenhalgh

Author

Rob Stein

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released new estimates showing the highly contagious delta variant now accounts for 51.7 percent of cases in the U.S. In some parts of the country, the strain is responsible for 80 percent of cases.

Delta is now the dominant coronavirus variant in the U.S.

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