New Delhi: WHO on Friday sounded an alert to the world to suppress the virus variants quickly before it mutates again into something even worse. The highly-transmissible variant, first detected in India, has now surfaced in 132 countries and territories, it said.
Addressing a press conference, WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said, “Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge.”
In the meanwhile, Australia’s third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state will enter a lockdown from Saturday as authorities race to contain an emerging outbreak of the Delta strain. Millions of residents across the regions will be placed under stay-at-home orders from Saturday afternoon for three days, state Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
Moreover, China has reported a larger contagion, after Nanjing yesterday. Health authorities on Saturday reported the spread to two more parts of the country. Nearly 55 new cases in areas including Fujian province and Chongqing municipality, were reported by the National Health Commission on Saturday.
More than 200 infections nationwide have been linked to a cluster in eastern Jiangsu province, where nine cleaners at an international airport in the city of Nanjing tested positive on July 20.