Delta Variant Now Fueling 99 Percent of U.S. COVID-19 Cases

Although Blacks are still dying from COVID at a higher rate than whites, the difference is small. The CDC notes that there were 0.3 deaths per 100,000 Black people compared to 0.2 per 100,000 white people in May, and 1.3 Black deaths versus 1.2 white deaths in August.

If a person is diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States right now, it is almost certainly caused by the Delta variant.

Delta has caused more deaths than any other time in the pandemic, according to Tammy Jackson-Moore, co-founder of the Guardians of the Glades nonprofit, an organization that is working to improve the vaccination rates in Pahokee and other predominantly Black or Hispanic cities in Palm Beach County, Fla.

The highly transmissible variant, which caused crippling surges in India and Britain this past spring and fueled case spikes in the United States this summer, is now responsible for more than 99 percent of all cases tracked in this country, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s not unexpected, because it’s more transmissible, but it is also a strong reminder that we need to have continuous vigilance,” Saskia Popescu, M.D., an epidemiologist and assistant professor at George Mason University in Virginia, tells The New York Times.

Back in June, the Delta variant caused a little more than 25 percent of COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC national genomic surveillance efforts.

Now, a particular Delta lineage is to blame for 99.4 percent among variants of concern. Other Delta lineages are responsible for much smaller percentages (0.2 percent and 0.1 percent).