Covid: Delta variant cases up by 34% in past week, Public Health England says
The IndependentSign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The number of Coronavirus infections linked to the dominant Delta variant have increased by 54,268 in the past week, a rise of 34 per cent, Public Health England has said. In a new analysis of variant cases in the UK, PHE said the Delta variant, which was first identified in India, now accounted for 99 per cent of call cases that have been genetically sequenced. Of the 615 aged 50 or over, 195, 32 per cent, were unvaccinated, 11 were less than 21 days after their first dose of vaccine and 140 were 21 or more days after their first dose. The variants are being closely monitored because of their potential to evade the vaccines and infect more people - so far the vaccines offer good protection against variants with two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine delivering 96 per cent and 92 per cent protection against hospitalisation, respectively.