High vaccination rates help shield Olmsted County from delta variant

The delta variant of Covid-19 has made its way into Olmsted County — though vaccinations may be a saving grace. 

Graham Briggs, Olmsted County Public Health Director, believes that despite this variant’s entry into the community, an emergency response isn’t necessary yet.

“We do expect that the delta variant is a significant factor here in Olmsted county and in southeast Minnesota, so we do expect to see the impacts of that here locally,” Briggs said. “The good news for Olmsted county is that we have a fairly high rate of vaccination. All data indicates that for fully vaccinated people, the vaccine is protective against the delta variant.”

Throughout the state, the delta variant is liable for about 75% of Minnesota’s new Covid-19 cases, and now accounts for more than 83% of new Covid cases in the United States, compared to its 50% in early July.

Although the Delta variant is more contagious than the original virus, the alpha variant, Briggs believes that vaccinations may help the county stay away from a significant increase in cases over the next few months. 

“It’s unlikely that we’re going to see another surge like we saw in November and December because we’ve got enough of the population vaccinated,” Briggs said. “But we do expect that it’s very likely that we’re going to see small pockets of transmission in non-vaccinated groups.”

Briggs is not alone in this belief. Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases physician and researcher at Mayo Clinic, describes the mutation found in the delta variant to be increasingly infectious and dangerous.

"The vaccines we have available in the U.S. are all extraordinarily effective against death, hospitalization and severe disease due to the delta variant as well as the other variants," said Poland.

As of right now, Briggs and epidemiologist Matthew Bjork continue to see very low case numbers for the Olmsted County area.

“We’re monitoring and handling cases as they come in, but case numbers are so low we don’t have to have an emergency response, we just treat it like we would whooping cough,” Briggs said.

Bjork said that as of last week, Olmsted County was down to 15-20 cases per week, or about 3 cases per day. 

Vaccination rates are high as well within the county, with 78.7% of adults and those age 16+ having completed their vaccine, and 77% of those age 12+ completing theirs. Olmsted County remains ahead of the state in vaccination efforts for those 16+, with Minnesota only having 64.8% with completed vaccines.

“While we’re looking for general transmission and cases we don’t find them even though we’ve had a couple thousand people together, we just aren’t seeing transmission here locally. That doesn’t mean we don’t have Covid here, we need to continue vaccinating to protect the public better, but the chances have greatly diminished that it’s going to [spread],” Briggs said. “But Covid is becoming a vaccine-preventable disease.”

Catey Ackerman is a summer news intern for Med City Beat. A graduate of Mayo High School, she now studies criminology and English at Penn State University.