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Some areas of the U.S. could see “very dense outbreaks” of the Delta coronavirus variant throughout the summer and fall, particularly in states with low vaccination rates, according to CBS News.
The Delta variant, which was first identified in India, now makes up about 20% of new cases across the country. The variant has led to surges in parts of Missouri and Arkansas where people haven’t yet received a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It’s going to be hyper-regionalized, where there are certain pockets of the country where we can have very dense outbreaks,” Scott Gottlieb, MD, former commissioner of the FDA, said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
“As you look across the United States, if you’re a community that has low vaccination rates and … low immunity from prior infection, the virus really hasn’t coursed through the local population,” he added. “I think governors need to be thinking about how they can build out health care resources in areas of the country where you still have a lot of vulnerability.”
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who spoke on “Face the Nation” before Gottlieb, also expressed concerns about the Delta variant. Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, which Hutchinson attributed to vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccines.
“The Delta variant is a great concern to us,” he said. “We see that impacting our increasing cases and hospitalizations.”
Hospital admissions increased 30% during the last week, and the University of Arkansas Medical Center reopened its COVID-19 ward. The state is offering incentives for people to get vaccinated, but they haven’t been successful, Hutchinson said. About 50% of adults are vaccinated, and public health officials want to move the needle higher.
“If incentives don’t work, reality will,” he said. “As you see the hospitalizations go up, the cases go up, I think you’ll see the vaccination rate increase as well.”
The Delta variant has been detected in 49 states and the District of Columbia, CBS News reported. The strain is more transmissible and can cause more severe COVID-19. The U.S. and other countries have marked the Delta variant as a “variant of concern” to monitor as the pandemic continues worldwide.
The Delta variant has become the dominant strain in the U.K. and now accounts for 95% of cases that are sequenced, according to the latest update from Public Health England. On Sunday, Gottlieb said the U.S. is about a month or two behind the U.K. with local surges in cases due to the variant.
“They’re seeing cases grow,” he said. “The vast majority are in people who are unvaccinated … the experience in the U.S. is likely to be similar.”
Sources
CBS News: “Gottlieb says parts of U.S. could see ‘very dense outbreaks’ as Delta variant spreads.”
CBS News: “Full transcript of ‘Face the Nation’ on June 27, 2021.”
Public Health England: “Delta cases continue to rise across the UK, June 25, 2021.”
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