The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that the Delta variant of coronavirus has elbowed out all the three other COVID-19 variants of concern
The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that the Delta variant of coronavirus has elbowed out all the three other COVID-19 variants of concern that now represent a tiny fraction of the samples, which are being sequenced.
"Less than one percent each of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma are currently circulating. It's really predominantly Delta around the world," said WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove.
The Delta variant, which was first detected in India last year, has become "more fit, it is more transmissible and it is out-competing, it is replacing the other viruses that are circulating," she said and added that the variant has been detected in more than 185 nations till date.
The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the world last year around March, the coronavirus was first detected in China's Wuhan in December, All viruses mutate over time, including SARS-CoV-2 and the WHO during late 2020 started characterising variants of coronavirus as variants of interest, and variants of concern.
The health agency started doing this to inform the response to the pandemic as the emergence of new variants posed an increased risk to global public health.
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