Delta covid variants are on the verge

Health authorities have confirmed that the Delta strain has been found in 9 people in Melbourne, including 4 children.

Victoria recorded 5 new locally infected coronavirus cases today, 70 of which were related to the state’s outbreak, including 1 recovered case.

Victorian Minister of Health Martin Foley said that today’s two cases are from the same family and are currently not related.

The remaining three cases are related to a known outbreak.

Mr. Foley said that continued vaccination across Victoria was an “exit” from Victoria’s blockade.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Professor Brett Sutton, said that 3 of the 5 cases today have been quarantined when they tested positive, which is “reassuring”.

The remaining two cases have not yet established contact, but they have spent time near the shopping centers of two known coronavirus hotspots in Craigben and Epping.

Professor Sutton also talked about the upcoming anti-vaccine protests, which are expected to hit Melbourne today.

“It is very unfortunate that anyone has this emotion…As an individual, you are free to not accept it. I still feel a little uncomfortable, but it is your choice,” he said.

“But don’t hinder those Victorians who are trying to get vaccinated.”

Testing commander Jeroen Weimar said that the state is “most worried” about the nine new clusters of cases, all of which are from the Delta strain.

The two new cases today are both Delta cases.

Worrying coronavirus strain is about 50% more infectious

B. 1.617.2, also called Delta strain, is The same strain of coronavirus that destroyed India.

This is also a major cause of concern in the UK.

American epidemiologist Eric Feighl-Ding explained that the Delta variant is 50-70% more infectious, and the patient is 2.7 times more likely to be hospitalized than the other variants.

He said that about 75% of all cases in the UK are Delta variants.

After genetic testing showed that the strain had infected at least two people, an emergency search is currently being conducted in Melbourne to find the source. Head to a family of four in Jervis Bay, New South Wales In late May.

Officials refused to rule out the possibility that the virus originated in New South Wales or Victoria.

“it’s a Variant of major concern,” Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Friday.

“It is obviously worrying that it has nothing to do with other cases, but we are tracing all contacts of these major cases.”

Simultaneously Brad Hazard, Minister of Health, New South Wales Responding to the claim that the new Covid-19 variant in Victoria may have originated in his state.

Mr. Hazzard said there is no evidence that the family found the variant in New South Wales.

“I just want to say that making any statement that may be interpreted or may be misinterpreted (in this way) will not help,” Mr. Hazzard told 2GB.

“There is no evidence that this family has discovered this variant in New South Wales.

Professor Sharon Lewin from the Doherty Institute told ABC News This morning, people were worried about the “Kappa” mutation-this mutation also appeared in India, which was attacked by Covid.

Professor Lewin said that both are more “infectious” than British variant “Alpha”.

“Delta variant, The new cluster reported yesterday dominates the UK and they have been infected with a bit of Kappa virus,” Professor Lewin began.

“The data from that country is very good and the genome is sequenced very frequently. We do know that both variants are more contagious than the British variant and are now called Alpha variants,” she explained.

“It is estimated that they may be twice as infectious. Therefore, for everyone who can be infected by one person-before two people-they are now twice as likely to be infected.”

She added that the current severity of the disease is “not very clear” and is currently based on anecdotal reports.

“You really need some very systematic data collection to prove the severity of the disease. I’m not sure if we have seen it.”

“But the same measures are still effective, which means-testing, tracking, quarantine, masks-all the usual measures we use to stop transmission are still effective here,” Professor Lewin said.

What is a Delta variant?

The Delta variant spread rapidly in India and became the main variant in the country.

“It is indeed almost an exclusive variant there and surrounding countries-Nepal, Bangladesh (and) Sri Lanka,” Professor Sutton said.

“All of this has been affected by a significant increase in cases related to this variant.

Why should we worry?

Very high communication potential is the main problem.

There are some anecdotal reports that the severity of childhood diseases and the infectivity between children may increase.

“For this reason, we are worried,” Professor Sutton said.

Stewart Tver, of the Kirby Institute’s Immunovirology and Pathogenesis Project at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the number of delta cases worldwide is increasing.

He said: “Like what we saw on Alpha in early 2021, this just means that we will see more Delta cases being quarantined. If there is a violation, it is most likely that variant.”

What are the main differences between Delta and Kappa strains?

Authorities said that the Delta strain appeared to move faster in “incidental contact” locations.

“I’m not saying that it has magical qualities, but we have noticed five exposure locations and seven of them have spread. I believe that they spend less time in indoor home, work, and face-to-face environments than usual, or indeed It’s the restaurant environment,” Professor Sutton said.

Dr. Tver described the Delta strain as a genetic “cousin” of Kappa.

“The key difference is that it has adaptive gains that allow the virus to better bind to cells,” he said.

“In a laboratory under controlled conditions, we did see that Delta was about 1.4 times healthier than Kappa.

“Although this is a laboratory observation, the replacement of Kappa by Delta in India does support it as a healthier variant in people with low vaccine immunity.”

How did the name of the virus come from?

The World Health Organization recently decided to use Greek numbers to simplify virus names, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta to avoid stigma.

Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly said this is the third attempt.

“One is where they were first found, and the second is a long string of numbers and letters, which is becoming more and more difficult to remember-even for epidemiologists,” he said.

How does the variant respond to the vaccine?

When asked about the efficacy of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine At the time being Launched in Australia Professor Lewin said that for Delta and Kappa, data from the United Kingdom showed high protection for both.

“We measure the effectiveness of vaccines in two ways. You can use laboratory tests or see how vaccines work in practice,” she explained.

“We know a lot about the Delta strain of the vaccine in practice. It is also from the United Kingdom. After the second dose of Pfizer vaccine, 80% of people have a protective effect against symptomatic Covid. Of people have 60% protection. Coronavirus disease.

“They did not report protection against serious diseases, but based on other studies, we expect that the protection against serious diseases will be very high, which is what we are really worried about.”

She added that the data surrounding the Kappa variant is not that reliable.

– With NCANewsWire