SARS-coV 2 Delta variant also known as lineage B.1.617.2 is a variant of the SARS cov 2 virues that causes COVID-19. It was first detected in India in late 2020 and has been named the Delta Variant by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31st May,2021.
The highly transmissible delta variant is likely to undermine all the progress that the world has made up till now to end the pandemic.
With the emergence of this new virus and slow vaccination rate, Corona virus cases are again rising around the world.
What is a variant?
When a virus affects an animal or person, it replicates itself with minor genetic differences, it is called mutation. With the mutation of the virus, we say that a new variant of the virus is created or made.
The mutation can occur in a segment of the virus every now and then and we don’t know when does it become less or more infectious.
Other than the delta variant, there are also other variants of COVID these include the alpha variant (that first appeared in United Kingdom), the beta variant ( the South African variant) and gamma (the Brazilian variant).
How infectious is Delta Variant?
The coronaviruses usually don’t stick to the lungs and fall off after sometime, however the corona virus that was first discovered in China was a lot stickier and could stick for a longer period. The United Kingdom was even more stickier, and now this Delta Variant is the stickiest. This implies that it can affect your lungs in the most deadly manner.
Additionally, a person with Delta variant is likely to affect more people as compared to the people with original Corona virus. Even the vaccine is eight times less effective for Delta virus as it is for the other variants.
How to stay safe from Delta Virus:
The best way to be protected from Delta virus is vaccination, because variants are formed in the people who are infected. Although, being fully vaccinated is a huge underscore yet we should attain it if possible because that’s going to go a long way for us to protect us from Delta variant. Moreover, practice social distancing and wear masks even if you are vaccinated because even if delta variant or some other variant start to take off or in some other jurisdiction, you will be protected.
