Increased infectivity, ability to escape immunity drove Delta variant: Study
Deccan ChronicleNew Delhi: The Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has become the dominant strain in India and many other countries, most likely spread through its ability to evade neutralising antibodies and increased infectivity, according to a study published in the Nature Journal on Tuesday. The team found that the Delta variant virus was 5.7-fold less sensitive to the sera from previously-infected individuals, and as much as eight-fold less sensitive to vaccine sera, compared with the Alpha variant. "The Delta variant has spread widely to become the dominant variants worldwide because it is faster to spread and better at infecting individuals than most other variants we have seen," said Partha Rakshit from the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, and joint senior author of the study. Professor Anurag Agrawal from the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India, joint senior author of the study, noted that infection of vaccinated healthcare workers with the Delta variant is a significant problem.