NEW YORK, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) - Problems in the data sharing approach of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has prevented senior U.S. officials from getting real-time situation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the lethal Delta variant, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

(File photo: AP)

The officials said that the information gap "stymied" the country's response to curb the disease, according to the report, adding that "the CDC's fumbles on the Delta variant tell a more complicated story: the once-storied agency faces other challenges that have hampered an agile response to the pandemic."

The report added that the CDC's failure in real-time data sharing "led top administration officials, including the president himself, to offer overly rosy assessments of the vaccines' effectiveness against the Delta variant that may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security."

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced Wednesday plans to improve the crippled approach by developing a new forecasting and outbreak analytics center to analyze data in real time to better assess disease threats, said the report.

Walensky said it would be the country's first government-wide forecasting center and its leadership team would include well-respected epidemiologists.