COVID Delta variant as contagious as chickenpox, CDC report says

The variant was also more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines, but the health authority said such incidents were very rare, the CDC report posted on the International newspaper website showed.

In its summary, the CDC report said Delta is highly contagious, likely more severe than other variants and breakthrough infections may be as transmissible as unvaccinated cases.

Still, the CDC’s figures show that the vaccines are highly effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death.

The CDC report said that universal mask-wearing is still needed to reduce transmission in addition to vaccines.

New research showed the vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant carried tremendous amounts of the virus in the nose and throat, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

The Delta variant is more transmissible than the SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain as well as the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, the report said.

It said it was as transmissible as chickenpox, a highly contagious infection common in children that causes itchy rashes.

But the variant is roughly as deadly as the ancestral strain, whereas SARS, Ebola and other diseases had far higher fatality rates, the report showed.

The immediate next step for the agency is to “acknowledge the war has changed” and improve the public’s understanding of breakthrough infections as well as the big reduction in the risk of severe disease for vaccinated people, the document stated.