The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health has warned of tough months in the US due to Covid, as new data shows that a Delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more viruses in the nasal passages than those in the original tribe.
“I think people underestimate how bad the situation is,” said Dr Ashish Jha. “We’re in a really tough August and maybe a really tough September before this really comes around.”
The delta variant is “one of the most contagious respiratory viruses that we know, and that I’ve had in my 20-year career,” Dr. Rochelle Wallinsky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a Thursday briefing.
The infection rate could be worse in the winter, Jha told CNBC: The News with Shepard Smith, expecting the delta to peak in two months.
“It may peak in September, but we are still far from peaking, we are now treating 40,000 cases per day, and it will go up significantly before it peaks,” Jha said.
The delta variant has spread rapidly across the United States and currently accounts for more than 83% of serial cases in the United States, up from 50% in the week of July 3, according to the CDC.
