COVID's Delta Variant Arrives In PA: What To Know

PENNSYLVANIA — The highly contagious "Delta" variant, which has health officials around the world giving conflicting advice again, has arrived in Pennsylvania. The news comes as the state lifted its universal mask mandate on Monday after 14 months, and as it continues to report record lows in percent positivity rate and new cases.

The Centers for Disease Control has classified Delta as a "variant of concern," and, as with any variant, there is the potential that vaccines could be less effective against it. It is clearly more contagious than both the original COVID-19 virus and the U.K. variant. However, while the science is still muggy on the issue of variants, including Delta, there are reasons to be optimistic.

For one, the prevalence of the variant in Pennsylvania remains very low, with only one percent of genomically sequenced cases testing positive, according to the latest data from the CDC.

Moreover, the CDC confirms that COVID-19 vaccines provide at least "some" protection against Delta.

Guidance on mask wearing varies. The World Health Organization made headlines when they said that the Delta variant was cause to require all individuals to wear masks indoors — even the fully vaccinated. The CDC, however, has maintained the masking is not required for the fully vaccinated, and Pennsylvania is following that guidance.

In other words: there are no plans to re-implement the masking order that was finally lifted on Monday.

"If you are vaccinated, you are safe from the variants that are circulating here in the United States," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on NBC's Today Show, noting that the WHO was dealing with an international populace and had to consider contingencies not applicable in the United States.

This is a widely shared viewpoint in the health community.

"There's no reason to assume that these variants will completely escape an immune response from vaccinated people," Dr. Timothy Brewer, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Patch in June. "For example, we know that (with) variants that have similar mutations, such as the South Africa one, there are data to show that, particularly the mRNA vaccines, still provide protective immunity — albeit at a lower level — so I would assume they'll similarly perform against the delta variant."

State officials said they were aware of the variant and monitoring it, but echoed the CDC's guidance.

"The potential threat of Delta and all other variants underlines the importance for all eligible people to get fully vaccinated," Department of Health Secretary Maggi Barton told Patch.

Delta is now the dominant strain in the United Kingdom, accounting for 90 percent of cases there, officials said. CDC projections state that it represents about 10 percent of cases in the United States.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Kat Schuster