The delta variant has taken the nation by storm — sending hospitals in low vaccination pockets into a scramble to maintain normal standards of care.

Believed to be twice as infectious as the original coronavirus strain, the delta variant became the dominant strain in the nation in July. In early August, Idaho officials confirmed the delta variant had surpassed all other coronavirus strains in the Gem State.

“Delta has taken over as the number one strain in the world, and it’s squeezed out every other strain,” said Dr. Richard Nathan, an Idaho Falls infectious disease physician.

Idaho’s most recent surge has sent predominately unvaccinated people into intensive care units and other hospital beds. That wave of patients has strained resources to the point that a hospital in Coeur d’Alene said it was on the cusp of asking state officials last week to initiate Crisis Standards of Care for their region, according to Idaho Reports. Crisis Standards of Care is a plan to ration scarce and potentially life-saving care to save people with the best chance of survival.

1) How can you stave off the virus?

Even though delta has contributed to coronavirus spread levels not seen for months in Idaho, the same protective measures — wearing masks in public and getting vaccinated — still make a huge difference in the virus’s spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late July issued guidance that said both vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear masks in coronavirus hotspots, which includes almost the entire state of Idaho. That CDC guidance was based on new evidence that vaccinated people could transmit the delta variant.

And the COVID-19 vaccine is still highly protective against the delta variant.

“The vaccine works against all the stains, including the delta (variant) we have right now. The best way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated,” Nathan said.

2) What is a variant? And how are variant cases identified?

Researchers identify instances of coronavirus variants by putting test samples under further study. The process, called genomic sequencing, allows researchers to definitively identify mutations to the virus.

Certain sets of mutations with concerning properties are specially classified by the CDC. Those new mutations may enable a variant to spread more easily, cause more severe sickness or evade things thought to provide some level of immunity, such as vaccination or past infection. So far, the CDC has identified four variants of concern, four variants of interest and zero variants of high consequence.

3) If you get COVID, will you know if it’s delta?

It probably is delta, but you’re unlikely to receive a test result confirming it.

When 90% of cases in Idaho are caused by the delta variant, delta is more likely than not the strain you’ll catch, said Dr. Christopher Ball, director of the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories in a news conference last week. Other experts agree.

“If you do the math, these days if you are in Idaho and you get a positive coronavirus test, it’s highly likely that it’s the delta variant,” said Barrie Robison, who leads a COVID-19 sequencing project at University of Idaho.

It takes two to three weeks from a nose being swabbed until the results of genomic sequencing return, Ball said in an email.

By that time, people may no longer be infectious or may already be in the hospital.

At University of Idaho, Robison leads a project that uses months of COVID-19 tests to identify variant trends. They’re using old test samples, instead of new ones like the state lab uses. And Robison said variant information is unlikely to ever make its way back to the people who were tested for the virus.

“When we do our sequencing here for our project, that will never happen. We’re sequencing samples in the past,” Robison said.

But aside from those hurdles, federal legal regulations called Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) block many sequencing data from being used for clinical decisions in hospitals or even providing patients knowledge of which virus variant infected them.

Ball said that’s because most coronavirus sequencing is done for surveillance purposes and is done at laboratories that are not CLIA certified or accredited. He said a few laboratories have successfully been licensed under the standards, written in 1988 before the advent of sequencing, “but they are the minority.”

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare does report patient-level sequencing data to public health agencies, which regulators have allowed during the pandemic to assist with outbreak investigations, Ball said. Health providers receive summaries, Ball said.