HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — About four weeks ago, the Delta variant only accounted for about 3% of the country’s COVID-19 strains, but now, it’s about 20% and on track to become the dominant strain.

“Not only is it more transmissible, but there is some concern that it actually may lead to more severe illness so we’re watching that really carefully,” Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

“We would still expect the measures that we’ve been using like wearing masks, hand washing, social distancing, and good hand-washing to be effective, but maybe a little bit less so because if you get that one little droplet that ends up on your hand, you may be more likely to end up sick than you would have a few months ago,” Dr. Jessica Ericson, Infectious Diseases Pediatrician at Penn State Children’s Hospital, said.

On June 28, Pennsylvanians don’t have to wear masks, even if you’ve been vaccinated.

“If you’re not vaccinated, you are not protected, please take those measures to protect yourself,” Walensky said.

While the Delta variant doesn’t pose much of a threat to people who got the shot, it does for people who did not or cannot roll up their sleeves.

“The things that we’re seeing now do make us worried that the fall may be the time when the Delta variant is so common that that is something we’ll need to worry about kids going to school in the fall,” Ericson said.

Dr. Ericson says while many kids can’t yet get the shot, their parents can.

‘In the coronavirus that we had prior to today, over the last year, about 80% of kids who ends up with COVID, get it from their parents,” Ericson said.