{"id":13525,"date":"2021-07-05T18:39:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T18:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=13525"},"modified":"2021-07-05T17:07:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T17:07:03","slug":"how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight","title":{"rendered":"How delta variant is affecting Covid fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>As the country grapples with high numbers of Covid-19 infections, scientists have warned that a new and highly transmissible form of coronavirus, delta variant, is rapidly spreading and driving hospitalisations.<\/p>\n

The scientists say the variant was majorly imported by travellers from India, but added that they don\u2019t rule out the possibility that it could be emerging from within the country.<\/p>\n

Dr Misaki Wayengera, the head of the government scientific advisory committee on Covid-19, said the variant is behind the increased cases of Covid-19 hospitalisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the critically-ill Covid-19 patients are infected with the delta variant. It is predominant. Delta variant is highly transmissible and it does not respect age,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing healthy young people getting infected, there are challenges but they are characteristics of the entire wave,\u201d Dr Misaki said.<\/p>\n

Up to 1,116 Covid-19 patients are in hospitals and more than 25,900 others are being managed from home due to limited hospital space. This is very high compared to what was witnessed during the first wave of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

President Museveni announced a lockdown on June 18 after a sharp rise in infections and hospital admissions, but a number of scientists say the desired effects of the lockdown are yet to be realised.<\/p>\n

On May 11, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated Delta (B.1.617.2) as a variant of concern due to evidence of increased transmissibility. Given the increase in transmissibility, the variant is expected to become dominant over the coming months, according to WHO.<\/p>\n

As of June 29, up to 96 countries had reported cases of the variant, though this is likely an underestimate as sequencing capacities needed to identify variants are limited.<\/p>\n

Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of Uganda Virus Research Institute, said the variant can be prevented using the \u201csame methods as we have done for other variants\u201d by observing preventive measures such as wearing facemasks, handwashing, social distancing, and vaccination.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the delta variant first originated from India, we suspect that the biggest chunk could have been imported by travellers entering the country from India,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The head of scientists also said the variant could be emerging from within the country, especially due to low coverage of vaccines.\u201cIt is also possible that some delta variant could be emerging because of the widespread transmission of the virus and the mutations that are happening locally,\u201d Dr Misaki said.<\/p>\n

He said since human beings are not so different from each other, the fact that the virus emerged from India does not mean a similar variant cannot emerge from the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you deploy vaccines widely, you stop a widespread transmission and free replication of the virus. The major driver of the emergence of a variant is the free replication of a virus in the population. The more the virus replicates, the higher the chance of generating a variant in the population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Effect on vaccine<\/b><\/p>\n

Government scientists say the efficacy of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine against the delta variant is low. Uganda has been using the AZ since the onset of vaccination on March 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the delta variant, there is a reduced efficacy for AZ. The data we have shows that there is only about 33.1 per cent protection with one dose of the AZ vaccine. That protection goes up to 51.7 per cent with the second of the vaccine. This is still low,\u201d Dr Misaki Wayengera said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. As the country grapples with high numbers of Covid-19 infections, scientists have warned that a new and highly transmissible form of coronavirus, delta variant, is rapidly spreading and driving hospitalisations. The scientists say the variant was majorly imported by travellers from India, but added that they don\u2019t rule out the possibility that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-13525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nHow delta variant is affecting Covid fight - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the country grapples with high numbers of Covid-19 infections, scientists have warned that a new and highly transmiss ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How delta variant is affecting Covid fight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the country grapples with high numbers of Covid-19 infections, scientists have warned that a new and highly transmiss ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-05T18:39:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60e33c1ad19e0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How delta variant is affecting Covid fight\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-05T18:39:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/07\/img-60e33c1ad19e0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/how-delta-variant-is-affecting-covid-fight\",\"name\":\"How delta variant is affecting Covid fight - 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