Since first appearing in India in late 2020, the COVID-19 variant of the Delta strain has swept through the country at an extremely rapid pace and has become the main variant currently circulating in most parts of the world. Why has this strain been able to achieve such rapid spread?
Let’s dive right in now, and you can click on the question that interest you,
1 Why does the Delta variant spread faster？
The most worrisome feature of this mutant strain is that it spreads very easily compared to other COVID-19 strains, said Ravina Kollar, a spokeswoman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, adding that the average number of people infected with the original New Coronavirus spread the infection to 2.5 people, while people infected with the Delta mutant strain can spread it to 5 to 8 people.
The authors said the mutant strain is as contagious as chickenpox and is more infectious than viruses such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), SARS, Ebola, the common cold, and seasonal influenza.
2 More “Breakthrough Infections”
Infections that affect vaccinated people are called “breakthrough infections. Aaron Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society, said, “If you do get the vaccine, your chances of getting the disease are still very small.” Currently, “breakthrough infections” account for only about 0.01 percent of all new coronavirus infections, and that percentage is unlikely to change, but as the total number of infections increases, the infection could spread among the vaccinated population.
3 Vaccines can still protect you
The data available so far are preliminary, but so far, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been 88 percent effective in preventing symptoms of COVID-19 infection, and as John Zara, head of the California treatment center the City of Hope, said, the Modena vaccine is also very effective against the Delta variant, perhaps even more so than the Pfizer vaccine.
4 All may need to be strengthened
On August 12, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Pfizer and Mernaird emergency use authorization for a third booster dose for people with weakened immune systems, which includes organ transplant recipients.
Immunocompromised people have proven to have no immune response to vaccination and are already at increased risk of serious illness and death due to infection with the new coronavirus, so they need a booster
5 Delta variant may not give you more symptoms
Some studies suggest that the delta variant strain does make you sicker compared to the original COVID-19 because this variant makes more people hospitalized, but others refute this idea.
Infection with the Delta variant strain causes the same symptoms as infection with the previous new coronavirus: fever, chills, cough, difficulty breathing, loss of taste and smell, headache, and nasal congestion.
However, there are some early indications that cough and loss of smell may be less common symptoms of infection with the Delta mutant strain. As with the previous mutations, vaccinated people usually have milder symptoms and are less likely to be hospitalized or die from the infection.
6 Delta deals a serious blow to children
A UK study found that positive test results for the new coronavirus in children aged 5 to 12 years appear to explain the increase in the number of Delta mutant strains, which may be a factor in explaining how quickly the virus spreads, faster than any other mutant, for which there is no approved childhood vaccine.
7 Delta mutant strain can still be transmitted in vaccinated populations
The delta variant is more infectious given that the load in the delta variant infected individuals is a thousand times higher than the load in the previous strain.
Paper co-author Barnaby Young, an infectious disease clinician at Singapore’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, said that given the high levels of the virus in the first week after infection with the Delta strain, measures such as wearing a mask and hand hygiene can reduce transmission, which is important for everyone, regardless of vaccination status.
The findings confirm the importance of good protective measures, such as wearing masks indoors to reduce transmission and using UVC lamps to kill the air, said an article on the website of the British journal Nature on the 12th of this month. While the COVID-19 vaccine can prevent serious illness and death, data on the spread of the Delta strain suggest that vaccinated people still need to take precautions.
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