Xinhua News Agency, Washington, August 9th, by report: The U.S. Covid-19 outbreak rebounds severely, experts worry about the virus mutating again
Xinhua News Agency reporter
Due to the accelerated spread of the highly infectious mutated new coronavirus delta strain in the United States, and there are still many people in the local area who have not yet been vaccinated, the recent rebound of the epidemic has been severe. American public health experts worry that if the vast majority of people cannot be vaccinated, new mutant viruses that may emerge in the future may break through the vaccine defense line.
The epidemic has rebounded severely
Recently, the new crown epidemic in the United States has rapidly deteriorated, and the number of daily confirmed cases has rebounded, and it has returned to the state of six months ago in early August. Francis Collins, president of the National Institutes of Health of the United States, lamented that the United States is “paying a painful price” for its ineffective fight against the epidemic.
According to the latest data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of the 8th, the average number of confirmed cases of new crowns in the United States has reached 97399 in 7 days. From August 3rd to 6th, the number of new confirmed cases in a single day exceeded 100,000 for 4 consecutive days.
The weekly epidemic report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 6th showed that due to the spread of the Delta strain, many states in the United States are experiencing large or high levels of community transmission.
In southern regions where vaccination rates are low, the health system is under heavy pressure. According to the Associated Press, 35 medical centers in Mississippi are full of intensive care units; the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Arkansas has reached the highest level since the outbreak, and there are only 8 intensive care beds in the state.
A variety of new coronavirus mutations are prevalent
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out on the 6th that a variety of new coronavirus variants are spreading in the United States, and the delta strain is still the mainstream strain, and its infections are expected to account for 93% of the newly confirmed cases in the United States recently.
In addition to the widespread delta strain, another mutant strain, the Lambda strain, is also circulating in the United States. According to data from the “Global Initiative for Influenza Data Sharing” platform, an international shared genetic sequence resource, through genome sequencing, the United States has so far confirmed 1,060 cases of lambda strain infection. Infectious disease experts said they are paying close attention to the lambda strain.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta strains that have emerged worldwide are marked as mutant viruses that require attention; the ETA, Jota, Kappa and Lambda strains are Mutated viruses marked as “needs attention”. According to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all mutant strains currently marked by the WHO are spreading in the United States. In addition, there are several variants that have not yet been marked by the WHO.
Worried about the virus mutating again
In communities with low vaccination rates in the United States, the number of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths of new crowns continues to increase. The White House’s Coordinator for the New Crown Epidemic, Jeffrey Zinc, said on the 2nd that the new cases were concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said that the number of cases caused by the delta strain has “dramatically increased” across the United States, unless most of the unvaccinated Americans act and choose to be vaccinated. The United States may be “in trouble” this fall, and the virus will have ample opportunity to mutate again.
Rochelle Volensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference recently that the new coronavirus is mainly spread among people who have not been vaccinated. What the public health and scientific communities are most worried about is the potential mutation of the new coronavirus, which may eventually cause the vaccine to fail to effectively prevent severe illness and death.
Volensky said that with a few more potential mutations, the new coronavirus will evolve into a highly spreadable virus, breaking through the current vaccine defenses. (Participating reporters: Feng Yujing, Yang Shilong, Zhang Mocheng)
【Error correction】
【Editor in charge: Xue Tao】
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