Doctors are warning that the highly contagious Delta variant has now spread to nearly every state in the U.S. and now accounts for one in five COVID-19 infections.
Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Hospital, says the Delta variant is highly contagious.
"The Delta variant currently is about a fifth to a quarter of all the viruses we are seeing, not only in New York but even around the country," says Nachman.
Nachman says people ages 12 to about 30 who have the lowest vaccination rates are also the most responsible for the super spreader events that we see. She strongly recommends that people in that age range get vaccinated.
"You're going to see people all summer long who have not been vaccinated, those kids will continue to spread the Delta variant and that's something we don't want," says Nachman.
Corine Batista, a first responder, says a misdiagnosis of COVID-19 led to her husband having a heart attack and later a quadruple bypass. Batista urges people to get the vaccine if they can.