Delta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director says A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

Delta variant accounts for 83% of new cases in US, CDC director says

A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

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Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

“A cluster of midwestern and southern states have emerged as new hotspots for Covid

Maya Yang

The highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 83% of all sequenced cases in the US, a top federal health official said on Tuesday.

“This is a dramatic increase, up from 50% [in] the week of 4 July,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Senate testimony.

Walensky also said Covid fatalities had risen by nearly 48% over the past week to an average of 239 a day.

“Each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths.”