The Delta variant is taken advantage of in developing countries as infections spread

The Delta coronavirus variant that has quickly become dominant in much of the world demands a very serious toll in dozens of developing countries, where vaccination levels are insufficient to prevent an increase in cases from becoming a wave. of the dead.

As the economies of Europe and the United States that have successfully weakened the link between infections and deaths have begun to reopen, the poorest countries with low vaccination rates are in some cases entering their worst pandemic phase.

“The world thinks this epidemic is over,” said Fatima Hassan, founder of South Africa’s Health Justice Initiative. “But we still don’t have enough vaccine supplies in the system despite the global understanding that the Delta variant is so devastating.”

The Delta variant first identified in India accounts for 95% of cases in South Africa where the genetic code has been sequenced. Less than 3% of people are fully vaccinated in South Africa, where the spread of the outbreak has been hampered by supply failures and, more recently, by a wave of political violence.

Ninety-nine percent of cases sequenced in Indonesia, where only 6 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, are the Delta variant. Both South Africa and Indonesia have reported a record number of cases this month. In Indonesia, the total of 54,517 cases registered on July 14 alone was four times higher than in January.

The same pattern is evident in much of Africa, which last week saw a 43% weekly increase in deaths from Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization. Five countries (Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia) accounted for 83% of deaths.

Africa has registered 1 million new cases in the last month, the shortest time it has taken to add that number, placing total infections across the continent above 6 million.

“The double barrier of vaccine shortage and treatment challenges is seriously undermining the effective response to the growing pandemic,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director.

He blamed the increase on the more transmissible Delta variant and public fatigue on measures such as wearing masks after more than a year of exit closures. Alpha and Beta variants, first identified in the UK and South Africa with respect, had also been widely detected, he said.

In Europe, the United Kingdom and Portugal are among those facing Delta variant infections, but high vaccination rates have reduced their impact.

In the UK, where more than half of the population has been fully vaccinated, the proportion of deaths in cases has fallen from about one in 50 during the winter wave to one in 750. Despite the daily case rates of the UK of more than 40,000, a figure that before the launch of the vaccines would have caused about 800 deaths a day, the current daily figure is about 50.

In contrast, Namibia, with only 1.2% of the vaccinated population, records one death for every 22 cases. Namibia’s daily rate of 28 coveted deaths per 1 million people is the highest in the world and is well above the maximum levels recorded in the UK and Italy.

Tunisia, where an increase in infections kills people faster than at any time during the pandemic, has the second highest covida mortality rate in the world. In Mexico, it is estimated that 84% of cases are Delta infections, a possible warning that the variant could also be applied in Latin America.

Trudie Lang, director of the Global Health Network at the University of Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University, said the Delta variant was a major factor in the upswing, adding that new mutations would continue to drive out old ones.

But it was important not to look at Delta in isolation, he stressed. Declining adherence to social distancing measures in poorer countries, where many people had to work to live, was playing a major role in raising deaths, he said.

“We’re tired because everyone wants to go on vacation and our kids want to go to music festivals,” Lang said of the impact of the blockades on richer countries. “But if you are a normal family trying to make a living together in a favela in Rio [de Janeiro] or a market stall in Dhaka, the tiredness of the closures is a whole different story. “

In South Africa, the situation is especially acute in Gauteng province, where not only cases but hospitalizations and deaths have reached record levels. There are more than 8,000 covid patients in hospitals in the province, with more than 100 deaths a day.

Hassan, of the Health Justice Initiative, said vaccine suppliers, who had not fulfilled their contracts with South Africa and some other poor countries, had a huge responsibility for what he described as an enveloping crisis.

In South Africa, months of blockade had contributed to the rage that recently hit the streets in a wave of looting and destruction, she said.

“If we had had enough vaccine supplies a few months ago, we would have been in a much better position to mitigate the impact of the Delta variant,” he said. “Vaccine companies can play God in a pandemic. Where is the world? Why don’t they send us 50 million vaccines? We really need it, right now. ”