World Health Organisation’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said that there was clear evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic isn't slowing down due to the spread of the Delta variant. It is also coupled with the slow speed of vaccination that is leading to an increase in Coronavirus cases across most regions of the world.
Swaminathan said Covid cases are surging in five out of six WHO nations and in the last two weeks, Africa has witnessed about a 30-40 per cent jump in the mortality rates.
“In the last 24 hours, close to 500,000 new cases have been reported and about 9,300 deaths -- now that’s not a pandemic that’s slowing down,” stated Swaminathan.
Listing four key reasons for the continuing spread of the virus - the Delta variant, social mixing, ease in lockdown restrictions and slow pace of vaccination, she said are responsible for the rise in cases again.
The super spreading Delta variant is surely the most transmissible and most harmful strain of Covid seen so far, said Swaminathan.
She further added that a person infected by the original Covid virus could infect close to three people whereas a person infected with the Delta variant could infect around 8 people.
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Pandemic fatigue or compulsion either one could be the reason for people to move out of their houses and are getting involved in social gatherings, this is the reason she said causing a rise in the cases. In addition, many countries in the world and regions in those countries have eased restrictions and relaxation in safety protocols like masking and social distancing, which are other reasons for the increase in Covid daily cases, she said.
Swaminathan further stated that though vaccination is declining the risk of severe Covid cases and hospitalisation, on the other hand, some nations would still face shortages of oxygen, lack of hospital beds and higher mortality rates.
Further, Swaminathan has said that Covaxin's Phase-3 data has shown to be promising and the vaccine can hopefully be authorized by the WHO by mid to late August.
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"I think the Phase-3 trial data (of Covaxin) is good and encouraging. The good thing is that they have also looked at the variants and they are sequenced about 60 per cent of the breakthrough variants that were seen in the trial. The overall efficacy is high while efficacy against the Delta variant is comparatively low, but it's still very good," she had said.