The infectious Delta variant has become California’s most identified strain of the coronavirus, a troubling development that underscores the strain’s danger to unvaccinated populations.
New data released by the California Department of Public Health now say that 35.6% of coronavirus variants so far analyzed in June have been identified as the Delta variant, which was first identified in India. That’s a dramatic relative increase from May, when the Delta variant comprised just 5.6% of analyzed coronavirus cases in California, and Delta was the state’s fourth most identified variant.
The latest numbers were enough to dethrone the previous dominant variant, Alpha, which was first identified in the United Kingdom and now comprises 34.3% of analyzed coronavirus cases in June.
Alpha was California’s most dominant variant for just two months — in April and May. The state’s previous leading variant before that was the California variant, which is now also known as Epsilon, but now comprises less than 2% of analyzed cases.
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