BOISE, Idaho — Across Idaho and the United States, attention is firmly on the delta variant as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase.
“We are concerned about the rapid rise of the delta variant across the country. We know this virus is much for contagious,” said White House Vaccinations Coordinator Dr. Bechara Choucair.
Dr. Choucair explained to The 208 just how quickly the delta variant has spread across America in recent months.
“We know that two months ago only 1% of the infections were caused by the delta variant, today more than 80% of the infections are caused by the delta variant and in some communities almost all infections are caused by the delta variant,” Choucair said.
The state of Idaho now reports 70 confirmed cases of delta variant, just nine days ago that number sat at about 35. State officials have admitted in recent weeks that they were behind in testing for the delta variant for a variety of reasons and believe the actual amount of delta cases to be much higher. Dr. Choucair echoed the seriousness of the situation but said there is a great option to help the situation.
“The good news about the delta variant is that we know vaccines work, they are very effective at preventing infections and they are particularly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths,” Choucair said.
New insight from the CDC shows that vaccines are still highly effective against the delta variant. The Pfizer vaccine, for example, is believed to be up to 88% effective in preventing symptomatic disease from the variant. Still, the delta variant is highly contagious, and it is now believed to even be transmissible from fully vaccinated people who are breakthrough cases.
“What we are also learning is once you have a breakthrough infection then your viral load is high and that’s the concern and the reason behind the CDC updating their guidance that if you are vaccinated in communities where you have a high or substantial level of infection it is important that you wear a mask,” Choucair said.
Idaho reports having a total of 818 vaccine breakthrough cases. About a month ago on June 28, the number of statewide breakthrough cases was 445, so 373 new cases were identified in a month. While the numbers are important to note, Dr. Choucair says the health outcome from those cases are likely good.
“What we are learning about these infections, these breakthrough infections, the overwhelming majority of those are either mild symptoms or no symptoms whatsoever so while we could see some breakthrough infections, I want to be very clear that the vaccines are very, very effective,” Choucair said.
Idaho remains below the national average in major vaccine metrics, with 45.8% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. Nationally, about 58% of eligible people have been vaccinated.
County wise, Idaho has a range of vaccine percentages from 28% in Idaho County, up to 86% in Blaine County. There are important factors to consider such as population density, vaccine access and overall population. However, there is a major focus from the White House on addressing low percentage vaccine areas.
“If you have a community with low vaccination rates and you have a rapid rise of a virus that is much more contagious, you have a recipe for a spike, there is no question about it. So, it is really important for us to double down on those efforts. Let me just also be very clear, we are already seeing an uptick in the number of people who are getting vaccinated and just this past week alone we’ve seen a 30% increase,” Choucair said.
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