COVID-19: WHO issues warning on Delta variant, says virus could become dominant soon

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus will become the dominant variant globally in the coming months.

The global health agency said the highly transmissible strain is now present in nearly 100 countries as per conservative estimates and might become dominant in few months.

In its Covid-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update as on June 29, the WHO said cases of the Delta variant have been reported in 96 countries and "though this is likely an underestimate as sequencing capacities needed to identify variants are limited".

"A number of these countries are attributing surges in infections and hospitalisations to this variant," the WHO said, adding, "A number of these countries are attributing surges in infections and hospitalisations to this variant."

The WHO warned that the Delta variant is "expected to rapidly outcompete other variants".

The WHO also noted that the tools that exist today to combat the coronavirus -- individual, community level-public health and social measures, infection prevention and control measures that have been used since the beginning of the pandemic -- remain effective against current variants of concern (VOCs), including the Delta variant.

"Although the increased transmissibility of VOCs [Variants of Concern] means that measures may need to be maintained for longer period of time, particularly in a context of low vaccination coverage, these measures must be targeted, time-bound, reinforced and supported by member states," the WHO report said.

The WHO on May 11 this year had designated Delta (B.1.617.2) as a variant of concern due to evidence of increased transmissibility.

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had also said the Delta variant is the "most transmissible" of the other variants identified so far and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations.

"I know that globally there is currently a lot of concern about the Delta variant, and WHO is concerned about it too.

Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far... spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations," Ghebreyesus was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Ghebreyesus had also noted that as some countries eased public health and social restrictions, there was a corresponding increase in transmission around the world.

Globally, cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 172 countries, territories or areas, Beta in 120 countries (one new country), Gamma in 72 countries (one new country) and Delta in 96 countries (11 new countries), according to the latest figures released by the WHO.

The WHO, in its weekly update, noted that at 521,298, the highest numbers of new Covid-19 cases were reported from Brazil during the June 21-27 week, followed by India (351,218 new cases, a 12 per cent increase over the previous week), Colombia (204,132 new cases, 5 per cent increase), Russia (134,465 new cases, 24 per cent increase) and Argentina (131,824 new cases, 11 per cent decrease).

There is a slight overall decrease in the number of cases reported this week, mostly due to the decrease in the number of cases reported in India," the update said.

Continuing further it said, that a number of countries, including Myanmar (112 per cent increase), Indonesia (60 per cent increase) and Bangladesh (48 per cent increase), reported large increases in the number of newly reported cases for this week.

It said in all WHO regions, there are countries reporting sharp increases in cases and hospitalisations.