WHO’s worrying prediction on the Delta variant of Covid-19 | the Chronicle

World Health Organization ( WHO) warned on Wednesday that the Delta variant of Covid-19, the strain originally registered in India and much more contagious than the original, will become the dominant in the world in the coming months, which could push the growing global contagion curve further.

Already the Delta variant has been detected in 124 countries and territories -13 more than last week- and represents more than three quarters of samples sequenced in many countriesWHO explained in its weekly epidemiological report.

“He is expected to quickly outperform the other variants and become the dominant bloodline in circulation in the coming months. “, predicted the United Nations health agency, according to the AFP news agency.

Among the three other so-called disturbing coronavirus (COV) variants, Alpha, first detected in Britain, has been detected in 180 territories (six more than last week); Beta, first detected in South Africa, in 130 (seven more than last week); and the Gamma, first detected in Brazil, in 78 (three more than the previous week).

But none has increased as much in recent weeks as the Delta. According to SARS-CoV-2 sequences submitted to the GISAID Global Science Initiative to share virus data, in the four weeks leading up to yesterday, the prevalence of Delta has exceeded 75% in several countries.

These include Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Great Britain, China, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Israel, Portugal, Russia, from Singapore and South Africa. This in turn coincided with an increase in cases around the world.

The Geneva-based WHO recorded a total of 3.4 million new cases of Covid-19 last week, 12% more than the week before. “At this rate, the cumulative number of reported cases worldwide is expected to exceed 200 million over the next three weeks. “, alerted the organization.