The more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now dominates large parts of Europe, the EU health authority ECDC and the European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday.
Data collected between June 28 and July 11 showed that Delta was the dominant variant in 19 of 28 countries with sufficient information.
The average proportion of Delta cases analysed in these 19 countries was 68.3 per cent. The previously dominant Alpha variant came to a share of 22.3 per cent.
At the same time, the health institutions based in Copenhagen and Stockholm drew attention to the need to step up efforts again to prevent coronavirus transmission.
The number of confirmed cases has risen in Europe in each of the past four weeks, with a particularly rapid increase among younger people.
The Delta variant has already been detected in almost all European countries and will continue to spread and displace other variants unless a new virus emerges.
According to current trends, it will become the dominant variant worldwide in the coming months.
"We are far from out of the woods in terms of the pandemic ending and sadly in many countries in our region we’re seeing a significant rise in cases associated with the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant," said WHO Regional Director Hans Kluge.
"The good news is that the data clearly shows that receiving a full vaccination series significantly reduces the risk of severe disease and death. When called to do so, people should get vaccinated."
Source: DPA
