Delta, the new strain of coronavirus, ishighly contagious and is becoming the dominant strain of the disease worldwide, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Friday.
According to Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO’s chief scientist, that’s because of its “significantly increased transmissibility”.
Studies suggest delta is around 60% more transmissible than alpha, the variant first identified in the U.K. that was more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.
The situation globally “is so dynamic because of the variants that are circulating,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan added during a news conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
The variant has spread to more than 80 countries and it continues to mutate as it spreads across the globe, the WHO said Wednesday. It now makes up 10% of all new cases in the United States, up from 6% last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WHO also stressed that mass vaccination will help to overcome this virus.
“The good news is that most of the vaccines that are used in the world today seem effective at least in preventing hospitalization from the delta variant.,” Swaminathan said.
An analysis from Public Health England released Monday found two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the delta variant.
We would like to remind you that two Delta cases have already been recorded in Ukraine.