Covid: WHO says Delta globally dominant, has replaced other variants of concern

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is the globally dominant variant niw, out-competing the alpha, beta and gamma variants, the WHO has said.

The world body's technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove on Wednesday said that the delta variant has also become more transmissible over time and is now actively replacing all other Covid-variants in circulation.

The delta variant has been detected in 185 countries till date. This variant drove the second wave in India and was behind the surge of coronavirus cases in the US.

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The WHO has downgraded alpha, beta, gamma along with three other variants - eta, iota and kappa - to “variants under monitoring”, indicating that they “no longer pose a major added risk to global public health” as they are being out-competed by delta.

According to the WHO, less than one per cent of infections around the world are each of Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants, and it's predominantly Delta that is a concern globally.