Delta Variant Accounts for 99 Percent of COVID-19 Cases Globally
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- The World Health Organization has said that nearly all of the 900,000 COVID-19 cases sequenced worldwide in the last 60 days were caused by the delta strain
- The organization's technical lead on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, made the statement during a Q&A streamed on the organization's social media channels, adding that the strain now represents 99 percent of sequenced COVID-19 cases globally
- Van Kerkhove's comments come amid an international increase in COVID-19 infections driven by surging cases in Europe, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of new cases in the world
- "Delta is really the dominant one," Van Kerkhove said. "And there are two variants of interest – mu and lambda – that we've been tracking as well, but again, where delta is present, delta takes over"
- Van Kerkhove said Europe accounts for more than half of the just under 50,000 global COVID-19 deaths in the last week
