COVID-19 Delta variant has spread to 100 countries, says WHO Regional Director

Delta variant is ‘dangerous’ and continues to evolve and mutate, WHO chief  Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus had warned last week asking world leaders to quickly ramp up the vaccination efforts. On Monday, regional director for WHO South-East Asia, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, announced that the hypervirulent Delta variant of the novel coronavirus of the B.1.617.2 lineage has spread to over 100 countries.

“The way it is spreading is slightly to soon become the most dominant COVID19 strain globally,” said the WHO’s South-East Asia regional director, according to ANI, adding that among all variants of concern (VoC) delta “spreads most rapidly.” 

Furthermore, Singh said, “India has been offered 7.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine through WHO's COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program” ahead of the looming fears of the third wave of COVID-19. Earlier last week, during his biweekly press conference, WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus had cautioned that the delta variant required a constant evaluation and ‘careful adjustment of the public health response’. He warned that the variant was spreading quickly in countries with both “low and high vaccination coverage.” 

“The Delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a new spike in cases and death,” the WHO chief said in a press briefing last week. Delta is now in more than 104 countries and we expect it to soon be the dominant COVID-19 strain circulating worldwide," he added. 

'Countries must expand genomic sequencing efforts,' says WHO

Meanwhile, WHO’s technical leader for COVID-19 response, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, reminded that the coronavirus has been evolving since it first emerged. “It is what viruses do. The variants of concern that we are tracking are currently four: Alpha, Beta, Gama, and Delta. They will continue to evolve: there will be more mutations, there will be more variants detected, and some of those will be variants of concern,” she informed.

Asking countries to expand their genomic sequencing efforts, WHO stated that there were several ’sub lineages’ of the Delta variant that the experts were currently tracking. "Public health and social measures like strong surveillance, strategic testing, early case detection, isolation, and clinical care remain critical,” WHO chief explained. He further advised people, especially those that were unvaccinated, to adhere to COVID-appropriate measures such as masking, physical distance, as well as avoiding crowded places and keeping indoor areas well ventilated.