World: The WHO sounded an alert on Thursday stating the Delta Variant has triggered the fourth wave in the Middle East primarily amongst the unvaccinated individuals.
As per the data reported to the world health body, highly transmissible strain, first detected in India, has been recorded in 15 out of the 22 countries and territories of the region under its purview, stretching from Morocco to Pakistan.
“The rapid spread of the Delta variant across the Eastern Mediterranean Region and all other WHO regions is a major cause for concern,” said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean. “We are now in the fourth wave of Covid-19 across the region.”
According to WHO most of the new COVID-19 cases are reported amongst unvaccinated individuals. The low rate of vaccination in the region, coupled with the increased transmissibility of the delta variant of the coronavirus, remains a major cause for concern.
Covid-19 management does not only include churning out vaccines that are highly effective against coronavirus disease infection, but also requires an equitable increase in the vaccination coverage, the UN body said.
As of the last week of July, “only 41 million people, or 5.5 percent, of the region’s population, had been fully vaccinated,” the WHO said.
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