A major concern right now is Delta, a highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, which was first identified in India in December. It then swept rapidly through that country and Great Britain as well. The first Delta case in the United States was diagnosed in March and it is now the dominant strain in the U.S.
One thing that is unique about Delta is how quickly it is spreading.
From what we know so far, people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus appear to have protection against Delta. A high majority of vaccinated individuals have much reduced symptoms, and few have serious symptoms, or are in need of hospitalization. Anyone who is unvaccinated and not practicing preventive strategies is at risk for infection by the new variant, the doctors say.
Here are five things you need to know about the Delta variant.
- COVID Delta is more contagious than the other virus strains.
- Unvaccinated people are at risk. Vaccinated people may get what they call “breakthrough” COVID, however, in majority of those cases signs and symptoms are much milder than someone who has not been vaccinated.
- Delta could lead to ‘hyperlocal outbreaks.’
- There is still more to learn about Delta.
- Vaccination is the best protection against Delta.
The fear now is that if the vaccinated numbers don’t rise dramatically the Delta variant will continue and it will mutate into another strain, and another strain, to evidentially mutate to a strain that is NOT affected by the vaccine. We all need to do what we can to STOP it now.
We are fortunate that we have had very few “breakthrough” cases here at our home. And following the science, majority of those have been milder cases than we saw last year at this time.
We continue to do everything we can to mitigate the continuing threat of this virus. Our stratgeies include:
- Following State and Local Health Guidance
- Increase monitoring of Infection Control
- In-Services with Staff
- Ensuring Isolation Practices on any potential outbreak
- Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Effective Cleaning Products
Testing as Required; needed and suspected