Geneva: The delta variant of Covid-19 is the globally dominant variant circulating around the world, out-competing the alpha, beta and gamma variants, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead on Covid-19 told reporters on Wednesday.
The delta variant has also become more fit and transmissible over time and is now actively replacing all other Covid-variants in circulation, Van Kerkhove added.
The delta variant has been detected in 185 countries till date. This variant drove the second wave in India and was behind the surge of coronavirus cases in the US.
The WHO has downgraded alpha, beta, gamma along with three other variants – eta, iota and kappa – to “variants under monitoring”, indicating that they “no longer pose a major added risk to global public health” as they are being out-competed by delta.
“This is really due to changes in circulation and that the variants of interest are just out-competed by the variants of concern. They’re just not taking hold,” Van Kerkhove added.
