Covid Pandemic: Delta doubles hospital risk

The Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant it has supplanted as the dominant strain worldwide, researchers reported in The Lancet on Saturday.

Only 1.8 percent of the more than 43,000 Covid-19 cases assessed in comparing the two variants were in patients who had been fully vaccinated. Three-quarters were completely unvaccinated, and 24 percent had received only one jab of a two-dose vaccine.

"The results from this study therefore primarily tell us about the risk of hospital admission for those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated," said co-lead author Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the University of Cambridge's MRC Biostatistics Unit.

Researchers analysed healthcare data from 43,338 Covid-19 cases in England from March 29 to May 23 of this year, including vaccination status, emergency care, hospital admission and other patient information.

All virus samples underwent whole genome sequencing, the surest way to confirm which variant had caused the infection. Just below 80 percent of the cases were identified as the Alpha variant, and the rest were Delta.

About one in 50 patients were admitted to hospital within 14 days of their first positive Covid-19 test.

After accounting for factors that are known to affect susceptibility to severe illness – including age, ethnicity, and vaccination status – the researchers found the risk of being admitted to hospital was more than double with the Delta variant.

'EXCELLENT PROTECTION'

Since these samples were taken, Delta has surged and now accounts for more than 98 percent of new Covid-19 cases in Britain, the authors said.

Multiple studies have shown that full vaccination prevents infection with symptoms and hospitalisation for both Alpha and Delta variants.

"We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta," said Gavin Dabrera, another lead author and consultant epidemiologist at the National Infection Service, Public Health England.

"It is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible."

An earlier study from Scotland also reported a doubling in hospitalisation risk with Delta over Alpha, suggesting that Delta causes more severe disease.

The coronavirus has killed at least 4,492,854 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data yesterday.

MELBOURNE EXTENDS CURB

A lockdown of Australia's second-biggest city Melbourne will be extended, authorities announced yesterday as they struggle to quash a stubborn coronavirus Delta variant outbreak.

Almost seven million people in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state were scheduled to exit a four-week lockdown on Thursday, but state premier Dan Andrews said it would no longer be possible with case numbers rising by 92 overnight.

It is the city's sixth lockdown of the pandemic, and includes a curfew, the closure of playgrounds and strict limits on exercise.

An unvaccinated teacher in a California elementary school infected half her students and 26 people in total when she contracted the Covid-19 Delta variant, researchers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

The researchers said the teacher attended school for two days despite displaying symptoms of Covid-19, and read aloud to her class without a mask during that time. Infections corresponded to the classroom's seating chart, with the students sitting closest to the teacher the most likely to be infected.

Authorities said the report showed why vaccinations, masks and other prevention measures remain critical to prevent Covid-19 infections as US schools reopen. They also warned that anyone with symptoms of Covid-19 should stay home, to avoid infecting others.

KOSOVO DELAYS SCHOOL YEAR

Kosovo will delay the start of the school year by two weeks and introduce a night-time curfew, the government said yesterday, as coronavirus infections soar.

The government said the curfew will take effect today from 10:00 pm until 5:00 am while the school year will begin in mid-September instead of September 1.

Daily cases of Covid-19 have risen from several hundred at the start of August to some 2,000 a day currently. Kosovo, a 1.8-million-strong country, has registered around 140,000 infections since the start of the pandemic and 2,500 deaths.

The United Arab Emirates announced it will resume issuing visas to all tourists fully vaccinated against Covid from today, a month before Dubai hosts the delayed Expo 2020 trade fair.

The move comes as coronavirus infections drop in the oil-rich Gulf country, after it reported fewer than 1,000 cases per day last week for the first time in months.