Delta variant gets foothold

The Delta coronavirus variant first identified in India's deadly surge in 2021 is gaining a foothold in parts of the United States.

Health experts say people who have received two doses of a vaccine should remain safe and even if they do get infected, they are likely to only get a mild case of COVID-19.The danger is to the unvaccinated. The Delta variant makes up about 10 percent of cases nationwide.

"It's essentially taking over," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said on June 8 at a White House briefing.

The Delta variant has increased from 2.7 percent of all coronavirus cases in May to 9.7 percent in June, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, said during a call with governors last week.

Delta variant infection cases are doubling every two weeks, said Scott Gottlieb, the former director of the Food and Drug Administration.

The CDC on June 15 upgraded Delta to "a variant of concern".

Worldwide confirmed cases have reached 177,108,695 as of early Monday, with 3,840,223 deaths reported, according to the World Health Organization.

Brazil on Saturday became the second country after the United States to surpass half a million COVID-19 deaths. Last week the average daily deaths surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May 10.

The Delta variant presents in more than 60 countries and poses new challenge to Europe's fight against the pandemic.

Britain recorded 9,284 new cases on Sunday and six deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Mass vaccination events have been taking place across London over the weekend as the government tries to speed up its program to limit the impact of the variant.

In France, local media reported that both strains detected during the start of the epidemic and variants found in recent months have nothing to do with China.

"On April 24 (last year), the Pasteur Institute issued its genome sequencing results (of samples collected from COVID-19 patients in France), which proved that the epidemic in France originated locally and there were virus strains circulating before 2020," Liya Ju, CEO of PreciMed Platform Europe, a medical research institute, was quoted by Nouvelle d'Europe, as saying.

Ju referred to the genetic study conducted by scientists from the Pasteur Institute, which discovered that the main strain of the virus present in France was linked to a genetic group which had no link with China or Italy.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.