Prevalence of Covid-19's Delta variant among specimens sequenced over past 4 weeks exceeded 75 per cent: WHO

The prevalence of the highlytransmissible Delta variant of Covid19 among specimens sequenced over the past four weeks exceeded 75 per cent in many countries worldwide including India China Russia Israel and the UK the WHO has saidIn the Covid19 Weekly Epidemiological Update published July 20 the World Health Organisation said that despite efforts to extend vaccination coverage many countries across all six WHO regions continue to experience surges in coronavirus casesOver the past week the highest numbers of new cases were reported from Indonesia 350273 new cases a 44 per cent increase the UK 296447 new cases 41 per cent increase Brazil 287610 new cases 14 per cent decrease India 268843 new cases 8 per cent decrease and the US 216433 new cases 68 per cent increaseThe update noted that as of July 20 a total of over 24 million SARSCoV2 sequences have been submitted to GISAID the global science initiative and primary source that provides open access to genomic dataOver 220000 9 per cent of SARSCoV2 sequences submitted to GISAID are confirmed as the Delta variantAlso read Early stages of Covid19rsquos third wave warns WHO chiefAccording to GISAID data as of 20 July the prevalence of Delta among the specimens sequenced over the past 4 weeks exceeded 75 per cent in many countries worldwide including Australia Bangladesh Botswana China Denmark India Indonesia Israel Portugal Russian Federation Singapore South Africa and the United Kingdom the update saidIt reiterated that the Delta variant is expected to rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant circulating lineage over the coming monthsGlobally cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 180 countries territories or areas while 130 countries reported cases of the Beta variant 78 countries cases of the Gamma variant and 124 countries have reported cases of the Delta variantFurther the update said that growing evidence supports the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant as compared to nonVariants of Concern VOCs but the exact mechanism for the increase in transmissibility remains unclearThe update cited a recent study from China during an outbreak of the Delta variant that examined the time interval from the exposure of a quarantined population to the first positive Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR result and found that the interval may be shorter for the Delta variant when compared to nonVOCsMoreover the viral load of the first positive test of Delta infection was over 1200 times higher than nonVOCs suggesting that this VOC may be able to replicate faster and be more infectious during the early stages of infectionAnother study from Canada analysing data from over 200000 Covid19 cases showed an increase in virulence of the Delta variant when compared to nonVOCsAmong the Covid19 cases the risk of hospitalisation ICU admission and death associated with the Delta variant compared to nonVOCs increased by 120 per cent 287 per cent and 137 per cent respectivelyThe update said that the global number of new cases reported for the July 1218 week was over 34 million a 12 per cent increase as compared to the previous weekGlobally Covid19 weekly case incidence increased with an average of around 490000 cases reported each day over the past week as compared to 400000 cases reported daily in the previous weekThe SouthEast Asia region reported over 829000 new cases and over 16000 new deaths increases of 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively as compared to the previous weekWeekly case incidence and mortality in India and Sri Lanka continue to decline with the regional trends being driven mainly by marked increases in Indonesia Thailand and Myanmar the update saidIn the region the highest numbers of new cases were reported from Indonesia 350273 cases 1281 cases100000 44 per cent India 268843 cases 195 cases100000 8 per cent and Bangladesh 82800 cases 503 cases100000 9 per centThe highest numbers of new deaths were reported from Indonesia 7118 deaths 26 deaths 100000 21 per cent India 5569 deaths 04 deaths100000 8 per cent and Bangladesh 1475 deaths 09 deaths100 000 9 per centThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever