Tag: delta variant

The continued spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spawned a Greek alphabet of variants - a naming system used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to track concerning new mutations of the virus that causes Covid-19.

The spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 threatens the fragile recovery of U.S. restaurants, according to a report on Tuesday from the National Restaurant Association.

Nassau and Suffolk are among the counties with the highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in New York, but with the Delta variant spreading, Long Island’s vaccination efforts are not over yet.

With a new wave of Covid-19 infections fueled by the Delta variant striking countries worldwide, disease experts are scrambling to learn whether the latest version of coronavirus is making people — mainly the unvaccinated — sicker than before.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is the cause of more than 80% of new U.S. COVID-19 cases, but the authorized vaccines remain more than 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths, said top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci during U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday.

The Delta variant is already the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the United States, according to data modeling done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Infectious disease experts are weighing the need for booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA-based vaccines for Americans who received Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine due to the increasing prevalence of the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant.