
But it was difficult for researchers to disentangle these intrinsic properties of the variant from other factors driving India’s confirmed cases past 400,000 per day, such as mass gatherings. The lineage grew rapidly in some parts of the country, and showed signs of partial resistance to vaccines. “It’s very likely it will take over altogether on a worldwide basis.”ĭelta, also known as B.1.617.2, belongs to a viral lineage first identified in India during a ferocious wave of infections there in April and May. “In my mind, it will be really hard to keep out this variant,” says Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist and biostatistician at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium. But in countries without large vaccine stocks, particularly in Africa, some scientists worry that the variant could be devastating. Nations with ample access to vaccines, such as those in Europe and North America, are hopeful that the shots can dampen the inevitable rise of Delta.

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Two months later, the variant, which was first detected in India, has catalysed a third UK wave and forced the government to delay the full reopening of society it had originally slated for 21 June.Īfter observing the startlingly swift rise of the Delta variant in the United Kingdom, other countries are bracing for the variant’s impact - if they aren’t feeling it already.

COVID-19 case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths were plummeting, thanks to months of lockdown and one of the world’s fastest vaccination programmes.

When the first cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant were detected in the United Kingdom in mid-April, the nation was getting ready to open up. A traveller checks in at a KLM counter at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
