Covid, WHO: “Mask and distance even if vaccinated”

“Vaccines bring us closer to each other and help us put an end to the Covid pandemic” tweets the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe. However, “even if you are vaccinated you can still be infected and transmit the Sars-CoV-2 virus.” For this reason “keep a safe distance, wear a mask and take care of hand hygiene”. Delta variant In the European Region of the World Health Organization, based on the estimated benefit for the Delta variant in terms of higher transmissibility and prediction models, “90% of new SARS-CoV-2 infections are expected to be due to Delta by the end of August “. “According to the data submitted to the international database Gisaid – recalls the WHO – the actual reproductive number estimated for the Delta variant is 55% higher than the Alpha variant, and 97% higher than non-Voc / Voi mutants”, that is which represent neither variants of ‘concern’ nor variants of ‘interest’. Precisely by virtue of this advantage, the Geneva agency predicts that “Delta will quickly overtake the other variants and become the dominant lineage in the coming months”. An enemy not to be underestimated, warns WHO, considering that “the first data from Scotland, related to people who tested Covid-positive from April 1 to June 21, showed an increased risk of hospitalization among those infected with the Delta variant, compared to those infected with the Alpha variant “. The increase in infections For the second week, cases of Covid globally is on a “slight increase”, after a decline for 7 consecutive weeks. In the 7 days between June 28 and July 4, the new infections were over 2.6 million, reports the World Health Organization. On the other hand, the decline in deaths continues, which in the period in question amounted to 54 thousand (-7%), the lowest figure since the beginning of October 2020. Overall, since the beginning of the emergency the infections exceed 183 million and the deaths are almost 4 million. “This week all the WHO Regions,” except the Americas, reported an increase in new cases “, explains the Geneva agency, emphasizing in particular that” the European Region has recorded a sharp increase in incidence (+30 %) compared to the previous week, while the African Region recorded a sharp increase in mortality (+ 23%) “. In general, despite the overall decline, “all regions, with the exception of the Americas and Southeast Asia, reported an increase in deaths in the last week”. In the 7 days analyzed “the highest number of new cases was reported. from Brazil (364,709, -30%) “, followed by” India (312,250, -11%), Colombia (204,556, stable figure), Indonesia (168,780, + 35%) and the United Kingdom (161,805, + 67%) ” .