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COVID Rates Rising in U.S. and Abroad

September 28, 2021

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Despite vaccines and treatments, the COVID-19 pandemic is still the number one concern for both policymakers and healthcare providers in the U.S. and abroad. As new variants of the virus emerge, hospitals are becoming more crowded, and schools that returned to traditional classes a while ago are now switching back to remote or hybrid learning. Cases among children are on the rise, and so is the number of children deaths—now reaching the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic. Maybe even more important is the fact that immunity through vaccination seems to be waning, as well, causing new worries among experts.

In August, 26,800 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19 and more than 4.2 million were infected with the virus that causes the disease. With the Delta variant now trampling across the country, people have started to worry about what could happen during the colder months. After all, the Delta variant is known to be 40-60% more transmissible than Alpha and almost twice as transmissible as the original strain of the virus. Moreover, the Delta variant is not the only one to cause concerns: Lambda, Mu, and C.1.2 have also caught scientists’ attention lately.  

From Variants of Interest to Variants of Concern

In the final months of 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) started to monitor the new strains of the virus that posed risks to global public health. These were named variants of interest and variants of concern, names designed to help global COVID-19 monitoring, research, and information. The Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants of the virus are considered variants of concern, while Eta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, and Mu are only variants of interest. The first four are thought to exhibit evidence of an increase in the transmissibility or the severity of the disease, while the others are only associated with certain changes to the original strain. 

The Delta variant is considered one of the most dangerous variants of concern, at least for the time being. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it causes more infections and spreads faster than early forms of the virus. Delta is now also the predominant variant of the virus in the U.S., and studies show it might also cause more severe illness than previous variants in unvaccinated people. However, as many communities across the country remain unvaccinated or have low vaccination rates, the Delta variant will probably continue to accelerate the pandemic.

Across the World

The U.S. is not alone in dealing with the rise of COVID-19 cases. In fact, a surge in COVID-19 infections has also hit the United Kingdom (UK), but many remain indifferent for the time being. More than 160 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, and more than 38,000 new cases have also been recorded. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is also rising, although it is still lower than the peak figure recorded in January of this year. However, the situation is even worse in countries with little or no access to vaccines and treatments.

On September 9, India reported a surge in the number of new cases, after a new outbreak in Kerala, while Iran is also facing a resurgence of Delta variant cases. The Middle Eastern country reported 26,854 new COVID-19 cases, as its total infection rate peaked at 5,210,978. 112,430 people have already died in Iran after being infected with the virus, according to an update made by Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education. According to the Iranian state TV, one person is dying every two minutes due to COVID-19 in Iran. However, the country remains slow to import and administer vaccines to its people, and just 5.15% of its total population is now fully vaccinated.

The Greatest Concerns

With Delta variant cases on the rise and hundreds of thousands of children now testing positive for the disease in the US, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be the greatest concern for both policymakers and healthcare providers. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently predicted that the pandemic is likely to persist in the U.S. until more people get vaccinated. “The endgame is to suppress the virus. Right now, we’re still in pandemic mode,” he added.