New worries about variants as Delta spreads | Coronavirus Newsletter

The gist: The list of coronavirus “variants of concern” keeps growing. These have one or more worrisome mutations that are suspected or known to increase transmission and disease severity. In the greater Philadelphia area — where vaccination has driven a steep decline in COVID-19 cases since the January peak — genetic sequencing suggests new infections are “all variants now,” University of Pennsylvania microbiologist Frederic Bushman said.

Experts see vaccination as the only hope for getting these variants under control yet fewer and fewer people are rolling up their sleeves. “My guess is it will come back in the fall in vaccine ‘deserts,’” Bushman said.

— Kelly O’Shea (@kelloshea, health@inquirer.com)

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📈The Inquirer and Spotlight PA are compiling geographic data on confirmed coronavirus cases, deaths caused by the virus, and vaccinations to curb the spread. Track the latest data here.

Since January, University of Pennsylvania microbiologist Frederic Bushman and his team have sequenced 1,651 respiratory samples from people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Pennsylvania and South Jersey, most of them patients of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “The United Kingdom strain is dominant in our area, and the New York variant is the second most abundant,” Bushman told my colleague Marie McCullough. The worrisome Delta variant, which is more transmissible and predicted to become dominant in the United States within a few months, has been identified only four times in Bushman’s sequencing. “We’re just starting to see the Delta strain,” he said. “So it’s definitely here. I have to assume it’s widely seeded.”

As other states report data that indicate nearly all their cases now are found in unvaccinated residents, the Pennsylvania Department of Health told The Inquirer it could not say what proportion of new coronavirus infections has occurred in those who aren’t immunized or what share of people hospitalized with the virus had been vaccinated. New Jersey, Delaware, and Philadelphia, which runs its pandemic response independently of the state, are tracking their cases. In all three places, more than 98% of recent cases have been in unvaccinated people. The findings support a growing national body of data that suggests nearly all severe coronavirus cases could be prevented if the whole country got vaccinated. Experts said this data could be key to persuading people who don’t feel an urgency to get vaccinated.

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