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You may have heard in the media this week the name ‘Delta’ used to refer to the B1.617.2 COVID-19 variant first identified in India.
This follows a move by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assign simple, easy to say and remember labels
for COVID-19 variants - based on letters of the Greek Alphabet (e.g. Alpha, Beta, Gamma).
WHO acknowledges that calling variants by the places where they are first detected is stigmatising and discriminatory.
Alpha is the new label for the B.117 variant, first identified in Kent.
The latest UK-wide data published yesterday shows that cases of the Delta variant in the UK have risen by 5,472 since last week to 12,431. This includes 39 cases in Swindon since the variant was identified, although the current risk to the wider community is low.
Recent evidence
shows that two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against the Delta variant. Over half of UK adults have been vaccinated with a second dose, giving them the strongest possible protection.
Appointments for second doses have been brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups.
Once vaccinated, you are:
- far less likely to get COVID-19 with symptoms
- even more unlikely to get serious COVID-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it
- there is growing evidence that vaccinated people are less likely to pass the virus to others.
More than half of people in their thirties have now received their first vaccination dose in just over a fortnight.
It’s clear how important the second dose is to secure the strongest possible protection against COVID-19 and its variants – and I urge everyone to book in their jab when offered.
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