CDC Watching 'Delta Plus' Subvariant 'Very Carefully,' Director Says. “We have had a handful of cases here in the United States, but it has not taken off as it has in the U.K.," Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “very carefully” watching a mutated form of the coronavirus called “delta plus,” the agency’s director said Sunday, as cases of the delta subvariant continue to rise in the United Kingdom.
“We absolutely are following the genomic sequencing of this very carefully,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We have had a handful of cases here in the United States, but it has not taken off as it has in the U.K.”
That subvariant, AY.4.2, makes up just 0.1% of all cases in the U.S., according to the CDC. It’s not yet clear whether it is in fact more transmissible than the delta variant, though AY.4.2 cases in the U.K. have become “increasingly common” in recent months, with early evidence suggesting that its growth rate may be higher than that of delta, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency.
CDC Watching 'Delta Plus' Subvariant 'Very Carefully,' Director Says | HuffPost Latest News