COVID-19 vaccines may not stop Delta transmission
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The findings come after concerns raised by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over people’s infectiousness amid Delta variant spread
In a recent development, it has been revealed that the Delta variant of Sars-CoV-2 indicate that the people vaccinated against coronavirus disease may transmit the highly contagious strain as easily as the unvaccinated, Public Health England said.
The findings come after concerns raised by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over people’s infectiousness amid Delta variant spread.
In a statement, PHE said, "Some initial findings ... indicate that levels of virus in those who become infected with Delta having already been vaccinated may be similar to levels found in unvaccinated people".
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 infections recorded worldwide passed 200 million on Thursday, an AFP count showed, as the pandemic surges around the world, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where the Australian city of Melbourne locked down again.
Authorities in Australia's Melbourne announced another lockdown as Sydney continued to witness a surge in coronavirus cases.
The Delta variant has been running rampant in Southeast Asia, with Thailand recording 20,000 new daily cases for the first time on Wednesday, and again on Thursday.
The country also announced 160 deaths in 24 hours, as exhausted morgue workers struggle to cope with the mounting bodies.
"I've seen our personnel faint quite a few times lately so fatigue is definitely starting to set in and we're almost at our limits," forensic scientist Thanitchet Khetkham told AFP.
Indonesia's total Covid death toll passed 100,000 on Wednesday after it recorded 1,739 of the 10,245 fatalities registered worldwide, the global toll rising past 4.25 million.
Japan's capital Tokyo had a new record number of daily cases with 5,042, just three days before the end of the Olympics.
Africa also posted a new record with the 6,400 deaths in the week to August 1 representing the continent's most since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization said.