Is Delta Plus Increasing Death Rates? As the WHO warns that Delta may become the dominant strain in the coming months, the AIIMS Director responds.

For the first time in recent weeks, India did not report the greatest number of new Covid-19 cases.

Even as the Delta form of Covid-19 spreads throughout the world, concern about a new ‘Delta plus’ mutant is growing, with some states reporting deaths. However, AIIMS director Dr. Randeep Guleria stated that there isn’t enough evidence to show that the new variety is more contagious, causes more fatalities, or has evolved substantial immune escape mechanisms.

“However, if we follow Covid’s best practices, we’ll be secure from any developing variants,” Guleria suggested. Meanwhile, according to conservative estimates, the Delta variation of the coronavirus is already prevalent in almost 100 nations, and the World Health Organization has warned that the highly transmissible strain will become the dominant form of the coronavirus globally in the coming months.

According to the WHO’s Covid-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, as of June 29, 2021, “96 countries have reported instances of the Delta variation, but this is likely an underestimate given the low sequencing capacity required to identify variants.” This variation is being blamed in a number of these nations for an increase in infections and hospitalizations.” Because of the increased transmissibility, the WHO predicted that the Delta variation will “rapidly outcompete other variants and emerge as the dominant variety in the following months. Individual, community-level public health and social measures, infection prevention are among the instruments available today to battle the coronavirus, according to the international body Infection prevention and control methods that have been employed since the beginning of the pandemic, including the Delta variant, are still effective against contemporary variations of concern (VOCs).

“While the enhanced transmissibility of VOCs (Variants of Concern) means that precautions may need to be maintained for longer periods of time, especially in the setting of low vaccination coverage, these measures must be targeted, time-bound, reinforced, and supported by member states,” it said. The Delta variation is the most transmissible of the variants found so far, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and is spreading quickly among uninfected people.