Delta variant, in Italy rapid increases in infections

The Delta variant scares Italy but it is still the Alpha variant, the so-called ‘English variant’, the most widespread in our country with a percentage of 74.9% of the number of cases. But from the first reports of sequencing performed in June, there is an increase, in percentage, of the cases of the Kappa and Delta variant, which pass from 4.2% in May to 16.8%. These are the first reports of recent weeks, monitored by the Integrated Covid-19 surveillance system of the ISS, pending the flash survey that will photograph the situation in our country. Cases associated with kappa and delta variants “are overall few in the January-June period, but there has been a recent rapid increase in the frequency and diffusion of these reports throughout the country due to several outbreaks. Most of them belong to the delta variant” . “From our epidemiological surveillance – comments Anna Teresa Palamara, director of the Infectious Diseases Department of the Higher Institute of Health – a rapidly evolving picture emerges which confirms that also in our country, as in the rest of Europe, the Delta variant of the virus is becoming prevalent. With the next flash survey we will have a more precise estimate of the prevalence. “