Missouri braces for Delta-driven COVID-19 surge By Rudi Keller Missouri Independent During June, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 took hold in Missouri, the seven-day average of new cases doubled. And now that the easily spread mutation has reached every corner of the state, July will be a repeat of June, or worse, according to the University of Missouri professor monitoring wastewater for the coronavirus. “Pretty much everywhere we have seen the Delta variant appear we have seen a spike in cases in two or three weeks,” said Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology. The variant was first identified in Branson in May and has since spread throughout the state. It was identified in every one of 36 samples from large and small sewage systems collected between June 14 and June 20.