'Delta Is A Warning,' WHO Urges Nations To Suppress Covid Before 'More Dangerous' Mutations Emerge

"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," Michael Ryan told the press.

Image Source: AFP

New Delhi: The World Health Organization during its weekly press briefing said that the current Delta variant is a warning and that countries should be working towards suppressing Covid-19 before the virus mutates to a more dangerous and deadlier variant. 

The highly transmissible variant has surfaced in 132 countries and territories, the World Health Organization said, it was first detected in India.

"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," the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan told the press, according to AFP.

The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying, "So far, four variants of concern have emerged -- and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread."

However, Ryan did say that existing measures still worked like physical distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene and avoiding long periods indoors in poorly ventilated, busy places.

Children aren't more vulnerable to the Delta variant

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's Covid-19 technical lead on Friday said the evidence showed that the Delta variant was not is not specifically targeting children rather it was being transmitted among people who were socially mixing.

"There was some suggestion that the variants were specifically targeting children, but that actually is not the case. What we are seeing is that the variants will target those who are socially mixing," Van Kerkhove was quoted by AFP. 

The WHO has published a plan detailing ways in which schools can reopen and stay open in safety.