VDH Adds New Variant of Concern To The COVID -19 Variants Of Concern Dashboard

It was listed as a variant of interest, but now the Virginia Department of Health is adding the Delta variant (B 1 617.2 ) to the variants of Concern to its COVID19 Dashboard. The Health Department is reporting 41 cases of the variant that have been identified in four of the five health regions in the Commonwealth since March 2021. This variant is considered to spread more easily, may cause a more servere illness, could escape the immune protection provided by available COVID-19 vaccines, or by natural infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, could make viral tests less accurate and could make some treatments less effective.