The graphics show how far the delta variant has spread around the world

More than a year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is grappling with a highly transmissible delta variant which has caused a further rise in infections in countries in the UK and US, to those from Africa and Asia.

The delta variant, which was first detected in India last October, has been found in more than 130 countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization.

The delta is the most transmissible variant of the coronavirus which first appeared in China at the end of 2019, said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist and technical manager of Covid-19 at the WHO.

“The virus itself, initially, is a dangerous virus, a highly transmissible virus. The delta variant is even more so – it is doubly more transmissible than the ancestral strain, it is 50% more transmissible than the alpha strain.” , she said. at a WHO press conference last week.

The alpha variant was first detected in the UK

Globally, the number of reported cases of Covid-19 surpassed 200 million on Wednesday and more than 4.2 million people have died from it, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Delta is one of four “variants of concern” listed by the WHO. Such variants are considered to be more contagious, more resistant to current vaccines and treatments, or could cause more serious illness.

The delta variant has become the dominant strain causing Covid-19 in many countries.

About 65 countries have detected cases of Covid caused by the delta variant in the four weeks leading up to August 5, according to genetically sequenced coronavirus samples collected by GISAID.

GISAID is a platform for scientists to share information about viruses, and its data is widely used by the global scientific community, including the WHO.

Data on the prevalence of the delta variant of Covid likely underestimates the actual situation as some countries do not share sequenced samples with GISAID, while others may not have the capacity and resources to perform the test. viral sequencing.

In 55 of those countries, the delta variant accounted for more than half of the virus samples submitted, according to data compiled by GISAID.

The delta variant of Covid hasn’t spared countries with some of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Israel, where more than 62% of the population has been fully vaccinated, has reported an increase in daily cases over the past month as the Delta has become the dominant strain in the country.

As the delta variant spread in Israel, the health ministry found that the effectiveness of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine fell to just 39%, even though protection against serious illness remained high. The country has started administering reminders to people over the age of 60.

But a study in the UK, where the delta variant is also fueling an increase in infections, found that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine were almost as effective against delta as against the alpha variant.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine used real-world data and found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88% effective against the delta variant. That is compared to 93.7% against the alpha strain, he said.

According to the study, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was found to be 67% effective against delta, compared to 74.5% against the alpha variant.

But progress in immunization has remained uneven across the world. Many poorer developing countries are lagging behind due to their lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines.

The WHO on Wednesday called on rich countries to stop distributing booster vaccines, citing the inequality of vaccines around the world.

In addition to getting more people vaccinated, WHO’s Van Kerkhove said there are steps people can take to better protect themselves from the delta variant. This includes wearing a mask, keeping your hands clean and spending more time outdoors than indoors, she said last week.

“This will not be the last variant of the virus you hear us talk about,” she added. “The virus will probably become more transmissible because that’s what viruses do – they evolve, they change over time, so we have to do what we can to reduce it.”