Delta will become dominant variant, says WHO

The Delta variant will soon become the dominant COVID-19 strain worldwide as it has now spread to more than 104 countries.

The director-general of the World Health Organization, or WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the Delta variant is driving a new spike in cases and deaths and is “ripping around the world at a scorching pace”.

“The world is watching in real time as the COVID-19 virus continues to change and become more transmissible,” Tedros said during a media briefing on Monday, noting that after 10 weeks of declining, death rates are increasing again.

“Not everywhere is taking the same hit though, we’re in the midst of a growing two-track pandemic where the haves and have-nots within and between countries are increasingly divergent,” he said.

He pointed out that Delta is spreading quickly in places with high vaccination coverage and infecting unprotected and vulnerable people, which is in turn putting pressure back on health systems.

Tedros said: “As countries lift public health and social measures, they must consider the impact on health workers and health systems.”

The situation in low vaccine coverage is “particularly bad” as Delta and other highly-transmissible variants drive up “catastrophic waves” of cases, leading to high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths.

“Even countries that successfully managed to ward off the early waves of the virus, through public health measures alone, are now in the midst of devastating outbreaks,” he said. “Particularly in low-income countries, exhausted health workers are battling to save lives in the midst of shortages of personal protective equipment, oxygen and treatments.”

Tedros once again called on fair vaccine distribution, describing the global gap in vaccine supply as “hugely uneven and inequitable”.

“Some countries and regions are actually ordering millions of booster doses, before other countries have had supplies to vaccinate their health workers and most vulnerable,” he said.

Tedros said the priority must be to vaccinate those who have received no doses and protection.

“Instead of Moderna and Pfizer prioritizing the supply of vaccines as boosters to countries whose populations have relatively high coverage, we need them to go all out to channel supply to COVAX, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team and low- and low-middle income countries, which have very low vaccine coverage,” he said.

Next week, the WHO and World Trade Organization will bring together public and private sector leaders to discuss the shortage and inequity of vaccines and other health tools.