Delta becomes a major coronavirus variant in the United States

July 7, 2021-The infectious delta mutant is Coronavirus In the United States, it currently accounts for more than 51% of COVID-19 cases in the country. New CDC data Updated on Tuesday.

Also known as B.1.617.2, the first subspecies detected in India accounts for more than 80% of new cases in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Delta also accounts for 74% of cases in western states such as Colorado and Utah, and 59% in cases in southern states such as Louisiana and Texas.

Communities with low immunization rates are bearing the brunt of new Delta cases. Public health experts are encouraging unvaccinated people to take shots to protect themselves and their communities from future surges.

“There are currently two North and South Americas, vaccinated and unvaccinated,” said Paul Offit, MD, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital. Told NPR..

“It’s summer, so I feel pretty good now,” he said. “But in winter, if a significant proportion of the unvaccinated population still remains, we will see the virus surge again.”

So far, COVID-19 vaccine It looks like it protects people from the delta variant. However, health officials are evading vaccine protection and monitoring other variants that could lead to this year’s outbreak.

For example, certain mutations in the epsilon variant may avoid the epsilon variant. Immunity From past infections and current COVID-19 vaccine New research Published in the journal last week Science.. Also known as B.1.427 / B.1.429, this variant, first identified in California, is currently reported in 34 countries and has the potential to become widespread in the United States.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Swiss clinics blood Samples from people who have been vaccinated and who have been previously infected with COVID-19. They found that the neutralizing power was reduced by about 2 to 3.5 times.

The researchers also visualized the mutants, and three mutations in the epsilon peaplomer allowed the virus to escape certain antibodies. vaccine..

Epsilon “relies on indirect and anomalous neutralization-escape strategies,” they wrote, understanding these escape routes helps scientists track down new varieties, Pandemic, Create a booster shot.

In Australia, for example, public health authorities have detected a lambda variant. Lambda variants are more infectious and may be resistant than delta variants. vaccine,according to To sky news..

To the hotel quarantine The New South Wales program has identified a variant of someone returning from a trip, the press reported. Lambda, also known as C.37, was named a “mutant of interest” by the World Health Organization last month.

Lambda was first identified in Peru in December and now accounts for more than 80% of cases in the country. To Financial Times.. Since then, it has been found in 27 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

The variant has seven mutations in a peaplomer that allows the virus to infect human cells, the press reported. One mutation is like another mutation in the delta variant and may be more contagious.

so Preprint study Researchers at the University of Chile at Santiago, announced last week, found that Lambda could better escape antibodies made by the CoronaVac vaccine made by Sinovac in China. In this unreviewed paper, researchers tested blood samples from two vaccinated local health workers in Santiago.

“Our data reveal that peplomers … have mutations that give them increased infectivity and the ability to escape from neutralizing antibodies,” they write.

Researchers can encourage countries to continue testing for infectious mutants in areas with high vaccination rates, allowing scientists to quickly identify mutations and analyze whether new mutants can be vaccinated. I did it.

“The world must put that action together,” Dr. Saad Omer, director of the Yale University Institute for Global Health, told NPR. “Otherwise, yet another, potentially more dangerous variant may emerge.”