Delta variant now reported in 85 countries globally, expected to become dominant lineage: WHO
United Nations: The Delta variant, the significantly more transmissible strain of COVID-19, is expected to become a dominant lineage if current trends continue, the WHO has warned after it was reported in 85 countries and continues to be detected in more places around the world.
The COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update released on June 22 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that globally, the variant Alpha has been reported in 170 countries, territories or areas, Beta in 119 countries, Gamma in 71 countries and Delta in 85 countries.
Delta, now reported in 85 countries globally, continues to be reported in new countries across all WHO Regions, 11 of which were newly reported in the past two weeks, the update said.
WHO said the four current 'Variants of Concern' being monitored closely Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta - are widespread and have been detected in all WHO regions.
The Delta variant is significantly more transmissible than Alpha variant, and is expected to become a dominant lineage if current trends continue.
The update said that India reported the highest numbers of new COVID19 cases, 441,976 over the past week (June 14-20, 2021), a 30 per cent decrease as compared to the previous week. The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (16,329 new deaths; 1.2 new deaths per 100,000; a 31 per cent decrease).
The South-East Asia Region reported over 600,000 new cases and over 19,000 new deaths, a 21 per cent and a 26 per cent decrease respectively compared to the previous week.
Decreasing trends in weekly case and death incidence in the Region are predominantly associated with decreases reported in India, the update said.
WHO noted that since the last detailed update on June 8, new evidence has been published on the phenotypic characteristics of the Delta variant. A study from Singapore showed that infection with Delta variant was associated with higher odds of oxygen requirement, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or death, it said.
Further, a study in Japan "estimating the relative instantaneous reproductive number (a measure of transmission at a specific point in time) showed that the Delta variant was associated with greater transmissibility" when compared to the Alpha variant.
When compared with the variants circulating in Japan before December 2020, the relative instantaneous reproduction number for Alpha was estimated to be at 1.56 and for Delta 1.78. Overall, this study showed Delta was associated with 1.23 times higher transmissibility than Alpha, the update said.
The update also took note of two studies that have provided evidence of the effectiveness of Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty and AstraZeneca-Vaxzevria vaccines against the Delta variant. One study reports on the effectiveness of these vaccines against severe disease (hospitalisation) due to Delta among persons over the age of 16 years in the United Kingdom.
Vaccine effectiveness estimates against hospitalisation due to Delta and Alpha variants over 14 days post second dose was estimated to be 96 per cent and 95 per cent respectively for Pfizer BioNTech- Comirnaty and 92 per cent and 86 per cent respectively, for AstraZeneca-Vaxzevria.
Single dose effectiveness against hospitalisation over 21 days after immunisation remained high for Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty at 94 per cent against Delta and 83 per cent against Alpha. Effectiveness of one dose of AstraZeneca-Vaxzevria against hospitalization was similar for Delta and Alpha variants.
A second study from Scotland found that two doses of Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty were 83 per cent and 79 per cent effective against symptomatic disease and infection due to Delta, respectively, over 14 days after receipt of second dose in persons 15 years and older.
Together, these studies suggest moderately reduced VE at preventing symptomatic disease and infection due to the Delta variant as compared to Alpha...The studies also provide further evidence of the importance of two doses of both Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty and AstraZeneca-Vaxzevria in preventing hospitalisation, symptomatic disease and infection due to both Delta and Alpha variants, the update said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
