Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that the rise of the delta variant in the United States, while expected, has been “troubling.”
The CDC says the highly transmissible variant, first identified in India, is now the dominant strain in the U.S, making up 51.7% of all new infections. In some pockets of the country, such as the Midwest and upper Mountain States, that number is closer to 80%, Walensky said at a news conference.
Overall, 31 states had more new infections in the latest week than the week before, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Because the authorized vaccines largely protect against hospitalization and death from the delta variant,