The highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is on the rise in Alabama, according to testing done at a UAB lab, with the variant accounting for just over 70 percent of sampled COVID-19 tests down by the lab in the last two weeks.

In a press conference Tuesday morning, Derek Moates, lab manager at the UAB Department of Pathology’s Fungal Reference Lab, broke down how and why the virus is on the rise.

“This strain has an increased viral load that is much higher than the previous strains,” Moates said. “This means that this strain is extremely contagious and is spreading rapidly.”

That high viral load is what makes the Delta variant contagious. A person infected with the Delta variant could infect people close to them in less than a minute.   

Moates is manager of a lab that has been testing COVID-19 samples to find different strains of virus.

According to Moates, the lab first saw the Delta variant with one case in April, but cases with the variant have increased rapidly within the past few weeks in Alabama.

Alabama is the least vaccinated state in the nation, according to the CDC, with only 33.4% of the population fully vaccinated. This puts the state at a higher risk when dealing with the Delta variant.

Due to Alabama’s combination of low vaccination rate and rapidly rising rate of Delta variant cases, Moates expresses a fear that a new COVID-19 variant may emerge in Alabama.

“I fear that there could be a new variant that is actually formed here in Alabama, because we have so little compliance with vaccination,” Moates said.

The unvaccinated are at a much higher risk for contracting the Delta variant and are likelier to get sicker if they do contract it than vaccinated people. Since April 1, unvaccinated Alabamians have accounted for 96.2 percent of COVID-19 deaths In the state.

Due to the increased contagiousness of the variant, Moates also advised those who are vaccinated but immunocompromised, elderly or have difficulty fighting off infections, may want to take caution and stay masked in crowded places.

Members of the UAB community can receive a free COVID-19 vaccine at one of the university’s on-campus vaccine pop-up clinics. The next clinic will be hosted on July 19 from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Hill Center Performance Lounge.