Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to United States President Joe Biden, on Sunday said that the country would administer booster shots to Covid-19 vaccine beneficiaries with weaker immunity before giving them to the rest of the population, reported CNN.

Fauci made the comment while speaking about the Delta variant of the coronavirus in an interview with the news channel.

He noted that people with weakened immunity, including those who underwent organ transplants or those being treated for cancer, mostly did not get an adequate immune response.

“We need to look at them in a different light,” he said. “We will almost certainly be boosting those people [with weak immunity] before we boost the general population that’s been vaccinated, and we should be doing that reasonably soon.”

Fauci also responded to a question on whether the American government would immediately start providing booster shots to the elderly.

“The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] follows a group of cohorts of individuals - cohorts of the elderly, those in nursing homes, and younger people,” he told CNN. “As soon as they see that the level of durability of protection goes down, you will see the recommendation to vaccinate those individuals.”

On August 1, Fauci warned that things would get worse as the Delta variant of the coronavirus had been found in more than 130 countries since it was first detected in India. He, however, ruled out lockdowns, despite an increase in the number of hospitalised patients in many US states.

Covid-19 in the US

The highly transmissible Delta variant has caused Covid-19 cases in the United States to sharply rise again. The country is reporting over 1,00,000 new infections a day – levels last seen six months ago, reported Bloomberg.

Although deaths remain below the levels seen during the last winter season, pressure on hospitals has been increasing, the news agency noted.

The latest seven-day moving average in the United States is 89,977, which constitutes an increase of 33.7% compared to the previous week’s figures. However, it is 64.6% lower than the all-time peak reported on January 10, data from the US CDC showed.

The country has reported a total of 35,392,284 Covid-19 cases have been reported till August 4.

In July, the CDC issued new guidelines, which said that Americans inoculated against Covid-19 in high-risk parts of the country should resume wearing masks indoors.