It is 60% more contagious than the Alpha variant discovered in the U.K., which was the last variant of major concern, according to infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm.
Mercy Hospital President Craig McCoy said the hospital is "holding patients in the ER, waiting on admissions, waiting on discharges on any given day.".
Perhaps most alarming—90% of all COVID samples being sequenced from that county are testing positive for the Delta variant.
McCoy said at his hospital, almost every COVID patient is unvaccinated.