Delta to become the dominant variant in the coming months: WHO

In WHO’s COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, the global body said that the COVID-19 variant is now present in 96 countries, as per conservative estimates.

The WHO warned that the highly transmissible Delta strain will become the dominant COVID-19 variant globally in the coming months.

"96 countries have reported cases of the Delta variant, though this is likely an underestimate as sequencing capacities needed to identify variants are limited. A number of these countries are attributing surges in infections and hospitalisations to this variant," it said in the June 29 update.

As per the WHO, the Delta variant, with its increased transmissibility, expected to rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant variant over the coming months."

Nevertheless, it noted that the global tools to combat the pandemic - individual, community level-public health and social measures, infection prevention and control measures – being used since the beginning of the pandemic remain effective, even against the Delta variant and other current variants of concern.

WHO said, “Although the increased transmissibility of VOCs (Variants of Concern) means that measures may need to be maintained for longer periods of time, particularly in a context of low vaccination coverage, these measures must be targeted, time-bound, reinforced and supported by member states."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had stated last week that the Delta variant was spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations. "I know that globally there is currently a lot of concern about the Delta variant, and WHO is concerned about it too. Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far... spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations," he had said.