The Delta variant of Covid was the root cause of the deadly second wave of coronavirus in India. And now, the same delta variant of the pandemic has unleashed havoc in the United Kingdom, and the country is battling the third wave. Professor Adam Finn, who advises on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told the BBC that the third wave in the United Kingdom is already underway, and the country is now witnessing a firm race between the Delta variant and the vaccination rollout.
The race between Delta variant and vaccination
"It's going up, perhaps we can be a little bit optimistic it's not going up any faster, but nevertheless it's going up, so this third wave is definitely underway. We can conclude that the race is firmly on between the vaccine program, particularly getting older people's second doses done, and the Delta variant third wave," said Finn.
Finn also made it clear that ramping up the vaccination process could be the only possible way to protect the country from the deadly killing spree of the pandemic. It should be noted that the Delta variant is now the dominant strain in the United Kingdom, and it accounts for the majority of the new infections in the country.
"So, the race is on. The sooner we can get, particularly second doses, into older people, the less of a hospitalization wave we'll see this time around. That's the critical thing, that's what's grounded us all in the past, and if we've managed to protect enough older people that we can avoid a great big surge of hospitalizations and deaths, then things will be able to move back towards normal," added Finn.
Concerns surrounding Delta Plus variant
In the meantime, Indian researchers had recently detected the Delta Plus variant of Covid. Even though researchers know very few facts about this new variant, some medical experts in the country believe that the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus could resist the monoclonal antibody treatment.
As the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has waned in India, it is still unclear whether the Delta variant or the new Delta Plus variant could trigger the third wave in India.
