On Wednesday, CDC data showed average daily new infections had risen above 66,000, from roughly 13,000 just one month ago. Yet the Delta variant has driven Covid-19 cases sharply upward over the past four weeks, touching off a scramble within the administration to head off the resurgence and sparking fears a prolonged battle with the new variant could swamp Biden’s broader agenda. “So I am hopeful that people are beginning to realize how essential it is to move.” “Almost a million people got vaccinated, about half a million of those people for the first time or for their second shot,” Biden told reporters before boarding Marine One en route to Camp David.
When asked if the American people should expect more pandemic guidelines and restrictions late Friday, President Joe Biden said “in all probability.” That decision marked a painful setback for the Biden administration, which had touted the dropping of mask recommendations for vaccinated people in May as a key step toward ending the pandemic. The release of the new data comes two days after the CDC announced that it was once again recommending Americans living in areas with high transmission to wear a mask indoors. “The finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to the CDC’s updated mask recommendation.” “High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
That suggests the vaccinated group was just as able to spread the virus as the unvaccinated group - a finding that prompted CDC to once again recommend that people in areas of high transmissions wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.
CDC also examined the viral load in 127 of the sick vaccinated people and found it was similar to the level seen in 84 unvaccinated people who contracted the variant.