Delta variant infections account for 10% of samples, says IHP

By Rathindra Kuruwita 

 It was worrying that one in 10, out of 142 samples, sequenced across the country, were of the Delta variant, Executive Director of the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), Dr Ravi Rannan-Eliya told The Island yesterday.

On Saturday, Deputy Director-General of Health Services Dr Hemantha Herath said 14 new cases of the Delta variant had been detected from sequenced samples from around the country.

The data strongly suggests that Sri Lanka now has several hundred or thousand Delta varian cases, he said, adding that health officials should be doing everything in their power to control it.

“I think the government first needs to understand that the current approach will fail. They have to adopt a proper strategy that has a chance of working and stick with it,” Dr. Eliya said.

The first community detection of Delta variant made it statistically certain that Sri Lanka had hidden Delta spread at the community level, he said.

“Although the authorities said the situation had been brought under control, the fact that our very limited genomic testing had picked it up made it very likely that many other cases were out there. Delta is 40–60% more infectious than Alpha (B117). Alpha is 40–70% more infectious than the original virus; Delta is twice as infectious as the virus that hit Wuhan. It might also be more deadly, but this still needs more data.”