Nearly all new coronavirus cases within the united kingdom are the Delta variant of the virus, a strain first identified in India and one worrying health officials within the us , where it has been named a “variant of concern.”
Public Health England data shows that the Delta variant accounts for 99% of sequenced COVID-19 tests within the U.K. a minimum of 33,630 cases of the variant were identified last week, bringing the U.K.’s total to a minimum of 75,953 cases of the Delta strain.
Delta COVID variant becoming globally dominant
Delta COVID variant becoming globally dominant –
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Data also shows that there is an increased risk of hospitalization with the Delta variant.
As of Flag Day , PHE reports an entire of 806 people within the hospital with the variant, an increase of 423 since last week.
Despite its severity, PHE said that two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine provides quite 90% protection against hospitalization. of those hospitalized with the variant, 527 people were unvaccinated and just 84 people of the 806 had received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
While PHE says the case deathrate is low for the Delta variant, it acknowledges that it’s “too early to guage the case fatality of Delta” compared to the previously dominant strain within the U.K., mentioned as Alpha, or other mutations of the virus.
Dr. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said Delta cases are “rising rapidly across the country” and thus the “Delta variant is now dominant.”
“The increase is primarily in younger age groups, an outsized proportion of which were unvaccinated but are now being invited to receive the vaccine,” Harries said. “It is encouraging to determine that hospitalizations and deaths aren’t rising at the same rate but we’ll still monitor it closely. The vaccination program and thus the care that we are all taking to follow the guidance are continuing many |to avoid wasting”> to save lots of lots of lives.”
She urged those receiving COVID-19 vaccines to “make sure that you simply simply come to the fore to receive both doses.”
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention upgraded the Delta variant to a “variant of concern” earlier within the week thanks to its increased transmissibility. New research suggested that the variant nearly doubles the danger of hospitalization compared to the previously dominant strain within the U.K.
However, the study also found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine provide protection against the Delta strain.
The World Health Organization is additionally showing concern regarding the variant. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist for WHO, said during a press conference that the strain is on its because of becoming the dominant mutation across the planet thanks to its “significantly increased transmissibility.”
WHO officials report that 80 countries have reported cases of the Delta variant, which the organization designated a variant of concern in early May.