New Jersey remains ahead of many states in terms of COVID vaccination compliance, but despite that fact, the number of delta variant cases continues to rise in the Garden State. Health experts at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention have said that although the risk of getting sick from the delta variant is low for those who have been fully vaccinated, its spread could delay the end of the pandemic.
In fact, the delta variant has become dominant in coronavirus cases across the United States, accounting for more than fifty percent of cases nationwide.
According to Yale Medicine, the delta variant, which was first seen in India, and was first detected here in the United States back in March, spreads 50 percent quicker than the alpha variant that originated in Great Britain, which itself spreads 50 percent faster than the original coronavirus strain.
During a CNN interview, Andy Slavitt, a former member of President Joe Biden’s COVID Response Team, stated that the delta variant is “the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids.”
The CDC says the delta variant accounted for 53.2 percent of coronavirus cases in New Jersey during a four-week period that ended on July 3. According to Reuters, just over half of the national coronavirus cases during a two-week period during that span involved the delta variant.
According to patch.com, “in the region including New Jersey, the delta variant accounted for 56.6 percent of recent cases, a map from Fortune.com shows. In New Jersey, 66.5 percent of people age 12 and up — those eligible to get a vaccine — have been fully vaccinated, the CDC said. That compares with the 55.6 percent national vaccine rate as of July 8. But vaccination rates in some municipalities remain below 50 percent, according to state data.” This morning New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Perscihilli said the state has ambassadors in 11 counties working with elected officials and local public health and community groups to get those numbers up.
Those counties include Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic and Union.
Hudson County has none of the municipalities in New Jersey with the lowest vaccinations rates statewide.
