Risk of death 137 percent higher: WHO shares terrifying studies on delta variant of the coronavirus

How dangerous is the delta variant of the coronavirus?

The WHO has now cited two studies that provide alarming results.

Geneva - The Delta variant is spreading more and more.

The mutant of the coronavirus *, which was first detected in India, is considered to be significantly more dangerous than the original form of the virus.

This is underlined again by data from two new studies that the WHO cited.

WHO shares data on delta variant of coronavirus

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the delta variant of the coronavirus has now been detected in 124 countries, 13 more than a week earlier. The WHO cited two studies on Wednesday that support the high level of danger of the variant, one from China and one from Canada. Both studies have not yet been published in a specialist journal.

In China, people who were in quarantine after contact with a Delta variant * infected person were examined.

The PCR test was positive after an average of four days instead of six, as was the case with the early variants.

In addition, the viral load was 1200 times higher in the first positive test than in the original virus variants.

"This suggests that this worrying variant may multiply faster and be more contagious in the early stages of infection," said the WHO.

Delta mutant of the coronavirus: Significantly increased risk of death

According to the Canadian study, the health risks of Covid 19 disease with Delta variant were significantly higher than with early Corona types: the risk of having to go to hospital was increased by around 120 percent, and the risk of intensive care need to be about 287 percent.

The risk of death was therefore around 137 percent higher.

Worldwide, the number of reported new corona infections rose by twelve percent to around 3.4 million in the week up to July 18.

The largest number of new cases recorded were recorded in Indonesia (plus 44 percent) and Great Britain (plus 41 percent).

The WHO names four reasons for the increase: the new highly contagious virus variants, the relaxation of corona protective measures, more social contacts and the high number of people who have not yet been vaccinated because vaccines are unevenly distributed between rich and poor countries.

As in the previous week, 57,000 infected people died according to these statistics - but the WHO always points out that in many places neither infections nor deaths are fully reported.

Previously, the number of weekly deaths had been falling for two months.