Social

Home page

Social

Coronavirus Delta strain widens its spread to 163 countries, says WHO

25 August 2021 12:25 (UTC +04:00)

The highly contagious coronavirus Delta strain has increased its spread to 163 countries over the past week. The spread of Alpha and Beta variants has also increased, the World Health Organization reported into the night of Wednesday, APA reports citing TASS.

"As surveillance activities to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants are strengthened at national and subnational levels, including through the expansion of genomic sequencing capacities, the number of countries/areas/territories […] reporting VOCs (Variants of Concern - TASS) continues to increase," the weekly epidemiological update said. It is emphasized that the emergence of these strains highlights "the importance of maintaining public health and social measures (PHSM) and the need to increase vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2."

Experts classify the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta strains as "variants of concern." According to data published in the WHO epidemiological update, the Alpha variant that was first detected in the UK in September 2020 is currently present in 192 countries and territories (three new countries since last week). The Beta strain detected in South Africa last August is present in 141 countries (four new countries). Some 86 countries have reported cases of the Gamma variant first recorded in Brazil last September, while the Delta strain first detected in India last October has spread to 163 countries (seven new countries in one week).

According to the WHO, as of August 24, since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 212,357,898 confirmed coronavirus cases with 4,439,843 fatalities.