Risk of Delta Plus variant for Unvaccinated People
• The U.S. is experiencing another spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations driven by the emergence of the Delta Plus variant.
• A large majority of new hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 are occurring among unvaccinated people.
• A new CDC report Trusted Source shows that since July 26, there have been only 6,587 reports of breakthrough infections that resulted in hospitalization or death among 163 million fully vaccinated people — a percentage of 0.01 percent or less.

A new variant of the coronavirus has emerged called the Delta Plus, and scientists are working to figure out if it is more dangerous than its infamous cousin, the Delta variant, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in India and is fast becoming the dominant variant around the world.

Nearly two-thirds of people infected with the Delta Plus variant around the world, and more than half of those who have died with it, have not taken even a single shot of Covid-19 vaccine at all, the latest official data suggests. Infectious disease experts say large-scale outbreaks among unvaccinated people are being fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant.

However, experts have warned that while vaccination reduces the risk of severe disease, it does not eliminate it because Delta Plus variant is “significantly more transmissible than Alpha” variant.
Fully vaccinated people who were infected with the virus tended to have less severe illness than unvaccinated people and seemed to have smaller amounts of virus in samples, the researchers added, meaning they may be less likely to pass it on if they are infected.

In most cases, people needing hospital treatment and deaths were in those who haven’t been vaccinated. So it is advisable to get yourself vaccinated and stop the transmission.

The researchers estimated that two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are 49% effective at preventing infection with the delta plus variant, in line with recent data from Israel and much lower than previous estimates.

The CDC said in a memo that the Delta variant is as infectious as chickenpox, a virus that was much more common before a vaccine was approved in the United States in 1995. That means
Delta can spread to more people in a shorter time period, creating pockets of transmissions mostly among the unvaccinated.

The findings from this study suggest lower viral loads in the fully vaccinated people who are infected, which correspond with lower chances of passing the virus on to others. The CDC recently found signs vaccinated people may be just as infectious as the unvaccinated, however, and further research will be needed to settle the matter. A lower chance does not mean zero chance, and the CDC recommends even the fully vaccinated to wear masks in certain places.

Delta Plus differs just slightly from Delta—the predominant strain in India and the rest of the world—which is more infectious and is thought to cause more hospitalizations than previous strains. Existing vaccines are effective against Delta, but only when people are fully vaccinated. Hence it is a required for all the unvaccinated people around the word to start getting their vaccinations doses in order to protect them from the Delta Plus variant and Help in stopping the outbreak.