WHO: Delta strain of coronavirus expands geography to 192 countries

The highly contagious Delta strain of coronavirus has expanded its geography to 192 countries and territories over the past week, Report informs referring to TASS.

The list of countries and territories in which strains “alpha,” “beta” and “gamma” are present has been expanded, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced.

Alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variants are categorized by the experts as “causing concern.” As activities to identify variants of the SARS-CoV-2 intensify at the national and supranational levels, including the expansion of genome sequencing capabilities, the number of countries, regions and territories reporting on the availability of variants of concern continues to increase, says the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). The Delta strain has been known to specialists since October 2020 after its discovery in India.

In turn, the Alpha strain, first identified in September 2020 in the UK, is now present in 195 countries and territories. The Beta variant, which was discovered in South Africa last August, is now circulating in 145 countries, their number having increased by three in a week. The Gamma strain detected in September in Brazil is present in 99 countries.