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Friday, March 29, 2024

Race against time to contain ‘Delta’

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The highly-contagious Delta variant is causing a surge in new COVID-19 cases even in countries with high vaccination rates – and experts warn that immunization campaigns are in a race against time to contain it.

According to Dr. Eva dela Paz, a member of the technical working group directed by President Rodrigo Duterte to study the COVID variants, the Delta strain is not only more transmissible, but it is also able to evade immune responses.

“The Delta variant [first identified in India] is estimated to be 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant [first identified in the UK]. The Delta variant’s combined mutation causes it to bind more easily to host cells as well as evade our immune system’s response,” said Dela Paz, the executive director of the UP National Institutes of Health.

While 17 cases of the Delta variant have been detected in the Philippines to date, Dela Paz said there is no community transmission yet as all infected patients were incoming international travelers.

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AstraZeneca, Pfizer highly effective

While several studies have shown that vaccines are slightly less effective against the Delta variant, they are still highly effective – but only after the second dose.

Dela Paz said the vaccines of Pfizer and AstraZeneca remain highly effective at 88 percent and 60 percent, respectively, against the variant, described by the World Health Organization as the fastest and fittest coronavirus strain yet.

“We are waiting for Sinovac and Sputnik to release data of the efficacy of their vaccines against the Deltra variant,” she said, adding that regardless of brand, vaccinated people have a lower chance of getting hospitalized compared to those who have yet to be inoculated.

‘The world is failing’

Delta is so contagious that experts said more than 80 percent of a population would need to be jabbed in order to contain it—a challenging target even for nations with significant vaccination programs.

Vaccine doses flowing through the Covax scheme to poorer countries have all but dried up, the WHO said Friday.

“The world is failing,” with lack of access to jabs causing a two-track pandemic, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pleading: “Just give us the vaccines.”

Snap lockdowns

In Australia, largest city Sydney entered a two-week lockdown on Saturday to contain a sudden COVID surge.

“We do need to brace ourselves for a potentially large number of cases in the following days,” said Gladys Berejiklian, the Premier of New South Wales state. “When you have a contagious variant, like the Delta virus, a three-day lockdown doesn’t work—if we’re going to do this we need to do it properly.”

Bangladesh has announced it will impose a tough new lockdown starting Monday, after a “dangerous and alarming” surge in Delta variant cases.

“No one can step out of their homes except in emergency cases,” a government statement read, adding that police and border guards would be deployed to enforce the lockdown and the army may be involved if needed.

Over a dozen inoculated doctors dead

In Indonesia, the country’s medical association confirmed Friday that 401 doctors were among the fatalities since the pandemic began – 14 of whom were fully vaccinated.

The rise of severe cases in inoculated medical workers has raised questions about the China-produced Sinovac jab, which Indonesia is heavily relying on to vaccinate more than 180 million people by early next year. With AFP

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