A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say.

However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.

First detected in India in late 2020, the COVID-19 variant known as Delta now accounts for almost every infection globally, the World Health Organization stated on Tuesday.

The coronavirus variant is known for its transmissibility. Scientists in the U.K. have stated that the Delta variant is between 40% and 60% more transmittable than the Alpha variant, which was first recognized in the U.K. 

As tens of millions who are eligible in the United States consider signing up for a Covid-19 booster shot, a growing body of early global research shows that the vaccines authorized in the United States remain highly protective against the disease’s worst outcomes over time, with some exceptions among older people and those with weakened immune systems.

U.S. economic growth crashed in the third quarter, as the economy grappled with the Delta variant driving a resurgence of Covid-19 infections and supply-chain disruptions.

Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S.—grew at an annualized rate of two percent from July through September, after adjusting for inflation and seasonality, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

That was below the consensus expectation for 2.9 percent growth.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in the third quarter, in the latest sign of how the recent delta variant of the coronavirus held back the economic recovery.

The gross domestic product figures for the July-through-September period, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, came in far lower than the booming 6.7 percent growth in the previous quarter, reflecting an economy struggling anew amid the delta variant surge, which tore through unvaccinated communities in August and September and is only easing now.

British and international authorities are closely monitoring a subtype of the Delta variant that is causing a growing number of infections in the United Kingdom.  

This descendant of the Delta variant, known as AY.4.2, accounted for an estimated 6% of cases in the week of September 27 -- the last week with complete sequencing data -- and is "on an increasing trajectory," a report by the UK Health Security Agency said.

Americans have fallen way behind.

The rent's overdue and evictions are looming. Two-thirds of parents say their kids have fallen behind in school. And one in five households say someone in the home has been unable to get medical care for a serious condition.

These are some of the main takeaways from a new national poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reporting a 10 percent global decline in new CCP virus cases and deaths.

An estimated 3.3 million new COVID-19 infections and roughly 55,000 deaths were reported in the past week, WHO said on Sept. 28 in a brief statement. The largest drop-off in cases and deaths was in the Americas, Middle East, and Western Pacific.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

New coronavirus infections in the U.S. fell by 25% over the past two weeks — another hopeful sign that the worst of the Delta wave may be behind us.

By the numbers: The U.S. is now averaging roughly 114,000 new cases per day. That's still a lot, but it's a significant improvement from this summer, when the Delta variant unleashed a new wave of infections, hospitalizations and death.

Deaths are still on the rise nationwide, because of that summer surge. They're up 4% over the past two weeks, to an average of 2,000 per day.

The U.S. recovery from the latest Covid-19 wave is taking hold across the country, with cases dropping or poised to start falling in the vast majority of states.

In 47 states plus the nation’s capital, a measure of average new infections from one newly infected person is below the key level of 1, signaling that cases are expected to decline, according to covidestim, a modeling project with contributers from Yale School of Public Health, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Stanford Medicine.