Original Title: China Released 丨 “Delta” Triggered Local Epidemic Spreading to 17 Provinces Experts Call for Early Vaccination
China Net, August 5 (Reporter Dong Xiaodi) Since its first discovery in India in September 2020, the delta variant has spread to more than 130 countries and regions around the world. Recently, the delta variant caused a new round of local epidemics in my country, which had affected 17 provinces as of August 4.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on July 30 that in the past four weeks, among the six regions of the world divided by WHO, the number of newly diagnosed cases in five regions has increased by 80%; during the same period, the number of newly diagnosed cases in Africa has increased by 80%. The number of new deaths in China has risen by 80%. This change is largely caused by the highly infectious new coronavirus delta variant.
The United Kingdom and India are most affected by the delta variant. According to the data of the WHO on July 28, nearly 90% of the new confirmed cases in these two countries were caused by “Delta”.
How to recognize the delta mutant? What challenges does it bring to the prevention and control of the epidemic?
On August 3, 2021, the communities where the confirmed cases in Beijing are located will implement closed management.Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Chao photoThe “powerful” delta mutant
“Delta” has strong transmission power, fast transmission speed, fast replication in the body, and long time to turn negative. Qiu Haibo, an expert from the Medical Treatment Group of the Jiangsu Working Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council, once said that the early symptoms of Delta infection may only be fatigue, olfactory disturbance or mild muscle soreness, one-third to two-half. The first patient may have no symptoms, have a lower proportion of fever, and have more atypical symptoms.
Guo Yanhong, Inspector of the Medical Administration and Hospital Administration of the National Health Commission, said that observations of the severe cases in Nanjing in this round of the epidemic found that the patients only had symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and cough at the beginning of the onset. This is not particularly typical, but the progress of the disease is very high. Soon, it will enter the severe stage in an average of five days.
Compared with other old mutant strains that are not listed by the WHO as a variant of concern, the transmission rate of “Delta” has nearly doubled; the incubation period has been shortened from 5-6 days to more than 4 days, and the passage interval has been reduced from 4 to 5 The number of days is shortened to about 3 days; the severity of the disease may also increase. According to a study in the United Kingdom, compared with the Alpha variant, the risk of hospitalization for patients infected with “Delta” is increased by 2.6 times. In addition, existing research and observations also suggest that the protective effect of the vaccine on Delta may be reduced.
Feng Zijian, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that for “Delta”, if there is no strong prevention and control intervention and vaccine prevention, the speed of the epidemic will be very significant.
Fortunately, although the transmission ability of Delta has been significantly enhanced, its mode of transmission has not changed. It is still the spread of respiratory droplets, the spread of contact pollutants, and the spread of aerosols formed under certain conditions.
He Qinghua, first-level inspector of the CDC of the National Health Commission, revealed at a press conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council on August 5 that domestic and foreign research and practice have shown that the delta mutant has not caused subversive biological characteristics of the new crown virus. Change, the source of infection and the route of transmission are basically clear. Existing epidemic prevention and control measures such as vaccination, wearing masks, washing hands frequently, maintaining social distancing, and avoiding crowd gathering are still effective for the delta variant. Existing vaccines still have good preventive and protective effects, can reduce the risk of virus transmission in the population, reduce the transmission power of infected persons, and effectively reduce the incidence of severe illness and mortality after infection.
New coronavirus mutant strains worthy of attention.Image source: WHO official websiteMutations will continue to have a long way to go for vaccination
“Delta” is not the first variant of the new coronavirus that has attracted public attention.
As of August 4, WHO has classified Alpha (the earliest discovered in the UK in September 2020), Beta (the earliest discovered in South Africa in May 2020), and Gamma (the earliest discovered in Brazil in November 2020). Discovery), Delta (Delta) four new crown mutant strains are listed as variants worthy of attention. In addition, there are 4 variants to be observed and 13 variants that require further monitoring.
WHO expert Dr. Bruce Aylward said that as long as the virus continues to spread, there will be more variants. Slowing down the spread of the virus and reducing the risk of new variants requires vaccine coverage in all countries to reach at least 60%, and around 70% globally.
Currently, only more than half of the countries have vaccinated 10% of their population, less than a quarter have vaccinated 40% of their population, and only three countries have vaccinated 70% of their population.
As of August 4, my country has vaccinated more than 1.7 billion doses. He Qinghua said that all the people over 60 years old in my country have been included in the scope of vaccination, and vaccination for minors aged 12-17 is also proceeding in an orderly manner. In the next step, my country will increase vaccination efforts on the basis of ensuring safety and call on the public to take the initiative to vaccinate as soon as possible.
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