What Is The ‘Delta Plus’ Variant Of The Coronavirus?
Scientists are monitoring the delta-related variant — known as AY.4.2. — to see if it might spread more easily or be more deadly than previous versions of the coronavirus.
What is the “delta plus” variant? Photo: AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin
What is the “delta plus” variant?
It’s a relative of the delta variant, identified by British scientists last month.
Because it isn’t a variant of interest or concern, it has not yet been officially named after a letter of the Greek alphabet, like the other worrisome variants.
Scientists are monitoring the delta-related variant — known as AY.4.2. — to see if it might spread more easily or be more deadly than previous versions of the coronavirus. In a recent report, U.K. officials said this variant makes up 6% of all analyzed COVID-19 cases in the country and is “on an increasing trajectory.”
The variant has two mutations in the spike protein, which helps the coronavirus invade the body’s cells. These changes have also been seen in other versions of the virus since the pandemic started, but haven’t gone very far, Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London.
The delta variant remains “by far the most dominant variant in terms of global circulation” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on COVID-19, at a public session this week.
“Delta is dominant, but delta is evolving,” she said, adding that the more the virus circulates, the greater chances it has to mutate.
The U.N. health agency is currently tracking 20 variations of the delta variant. The AY.4.2 is “one to watch because we have to continuously keep an eye on how this virus is changing,” said Van Kerkhove.
In the U.S., the delta variant accounts for nearly all COVID-19 cases. The newer “delta plus” variant has been spotted “on occasion,” but it’s not yet a concern, health officials said.
-
Indigenous people march in Brazil to demand land demarcation
2024-04-24 -
Talks on global plastic treaty begin in Canada
2024-04-24 -
Colombian court recognizes environmental refugees
2024-04-24 -
Asia hit hardest by climate and weather disasters last year, says UN
2024-04-23 -
Denmark launches its biggest offshore wind farm tender
2024-04-22 -
Nobel laureate urges Iranians to protest 'war against women'
2024-04-22 -
'Human-induced' climate change behind deadly Sahel heatwave: study
2024-04-21 -
Moldovan youth is more than ready to join the EU
2024-04-18 -
UN says solutions exist to rapidly ease debt burden of poor nations
2024-04-18 -
Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
2024-04-18