For the third consecutive day, the United States has recorded nearly 20,000 new infections, a threshold that the country has not surpassed since May, signaling a setback in efforts to combat the pandemic. Health officials in the U.S. have indicated that the rapidly spreading "Delta" variant is widely circulating in areas with low vaccination rates. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that about 93 percent of new infections in recent days occurred in counties with vaccination rates below 40 percent, according to the British newspaper "Daily Mail." She added that preliminary data from recent months indicates that 99.5 percent of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in unvaccinated individuals.
Earlier, the CDC noted that the "Delta" variant has become the dominant strain in the U.S., representing more than half of all new cases. The United States is the most affected country in the world by COVID-19, with over 43 million infections and more than 622,000 deaths. The situation is not limited to the United States, as several countries are also experiencing a rapid surge in COVID-19 despite vaccination campaigns.
For instance, South Korea, long considered a model for pandemic containment, announced an additional 1,378 cases on Saturday, marking a record high for the third consecutive day in the country due to the "Delta" variant. The World Health Organization states that the "Delta" variant is present in nearly 100 countries worldwide, warning of a new wave of COVID-19 despite a global decline in infection rates. According to the CDC, the Delta variant was first identified in India in December 2020. Its rapid spread is concerning compared to other strains, with studies indicating that "the transmissibility of the Delta variant has increased by approximately 40-60 percent."
