“The Delta variant is more contagious than Ebola, colds, seasonal flu and smallpox and is easily transmitted like chickenpox” confirms the American Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The new variant, discovered in October in India, has spread to over 100 countries, including Italy, and is 60% more contagious than other strains.
One of the causes of this “contagiousness” lies in the viral load of infected people, 1260 times greater than the original virus.
The new studio was born, however, not in America but in China, in Guangdong.
According to the investigation by the Chinese Local Department of Health, the first local Delta variant infection in Guangzhou city was detected on May 21, 2021.
A total of 167 cases were detected between that date and June 18. The researchers performed daily PCR tests on close contacts in these cases and detected the viral load of each infected person on the first day they tested positive for the virus. Next, they compared these figures with those of 63 Coronavirus cases in 2020, who contracted the original strain of the virus. The charge of the infected people was 1,260 higher than that of the group with the original variant.
In the Guangdong Delta Close Contact Study, the researchers were also able to determine the time between exposure and detection of the virus. For the Delta an average of four days, compared to six days for the original virus.
The study also indicated that the Delta variant may be more infectious in the first few days of infection, even before symptoms develop. However, the authors of the survey state that it is difficult to measure infectivity from clinical investigations since “more than 50% of transmission occurs during the presymptomatic phase”. The researchers explain that the importance of identifying when an infected person can transmit the virus “is essential to design intervention strategies that break the chains of transmission.”
One aspect is absolutely undeniable and does not need studies: at the moment the Delta variant is dominating the world and we must act in the shortest possible time. The first action to take is to vaccinate all populations. Only in this way will it be possible to get out of it.