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Moving away from the WHO briefing for now, here’s the full story on how millions of Americans hitherto protected from eviction by a moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that has been allowed to expire at the end of this week now face potential eviction.
This pain won’t be felt equally across the US. States with weak renter protections, such as Florida, are bracing for an “avalanche” of evictions while the federal moratorium’s expiration won’t be noticed in states with stronger protections, such as Washington.
Related: US states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal moratorium ends
Higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, said Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization technical lead on Covid-19, suggesting that while it may be more transmissible this does not necessarily equate to a greater death risk.
She said that the Delta variant is about 50% more transmissible than ancestral strains of Sars-CoV-2, that first emerged in China in late 2019. A few countries have reported increased hospitalisation rates but higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, she said.
Related: ‘The war has changed’: CDC paper warns Delta variant is far more transmissible