COVID-19 Delta variant is now spread across 185 countries: World Health Organisation

The Delta variant is the dominant strain with less than one per cent each of Alpha, Beta and Gamma in circulation as of September 21, the WHO said.

Geneva: The Delta Covid variant is the current dominant strain of the infectious virus, with its presence reported in 185 countries, as of September 21, the World Health organisation has said.

"The Delta variant now accounted for 90 per cent of the sequences submitted to GISAID with a sample collection date (between 15 June-15 September, 2021)," the global health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update on Tuesday. GISAID, which stands for Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, is an open-access database.

"Less than one per cent each of Alpha, Beta and Gamma are currently circulating. It`s really predominantly Delta around the world," Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organisation`s technical lead on Covid-19, was quoted as saying during a WHO social media live interaction.