Delta variant of COVID-19 as contagious as chickenpox: US CDC Report

The Delta variant of COVID-19 is as contagious as chickenpox, an internal report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday. The variant has also been identified as being way more contagious with a potential to break through the protection offered by vaccines. 

According to New York Times, an internal presentation circulated within the CDC stated that the Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu, and smallpox. Its transmissibility has been identified to be as strong as chickenpox. 

Although transmission by vaccinated people is a rare event, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of CDC, revealed that vaccinated people carried just as much virus in the nose and throat as unvaccinated people, and the former may spread it just as readily, if less often. “The C.D.C. is very concerned with the data coming in that Delta is a very serious threat that requires action now,” the official said.

"The immediate next step for the agency is to acknowledge the war has changed," the document said as per The Washington Post. “Given higher transmissibility and current vaccine coverage, universal masking is essential,” the document added.

Delta variant spreads to 132 nations

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified the Delta variant of Coronavirus in 132 countries, most of which have been witnessing a spike in their daily COVID-19 infections. According to the United Nations, the number of new COVID-19 cases reported last week from July 19 to July 25 was over 3.8 million, up by 8% from the previous week. WHO recently released new data that revealed a “substantial” increase in cases in the Americas and Western Pacific, with 30% and 25%, respectively.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's COVID-19 Technical Lead, stated, "In the last week, the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide increased by about 6.5% and the number of deaths increased by about 20.6%. Last week, more than 69,000 people died. This is an absolute travesty because we can prevent deaths."

Last week, Rochelle Walensky had called the Delta variant a different beast' stating that its spread was way more dramatic than the previous variants. “Where we were in May as we had a country that had mostly Alpha variant of this virus, only 1 percent of the sequence’s Virus was delta at the time. Here we are about 10 weeks later and most of what we're sequencing now is delta variant and delta is just a different kind of beast as we say,” Walensky said in a statement.