GENEVA - To date, the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus has been identified in 111 countries, territories or areas, and is on the way to becoming the dominant strain of the virus worldwide, causing an increase in new infections and deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Ecuador are among the 15 countries that reported their first cases of the highly infectious variant in the past week, the WHO said in a press release.
It warned that the Delta strain is likely to spread to more countries and that it is likely to become the dominant form of Covid-19 "in the coming months."
According to WHO figures, Covid-19 cases have jumped in the past week worldwide.
In related news, A WHO-led team has found the novel coronavirus was circulating in China and elsewhere long before the outbreak at Wuhan's Huanan seafood market in December 2019 after studying the case of an Italian woman, the Daily Mail reported.
The 25-year-old woman visited a Milan hospital complaining about a sore throat and skin lesions in November 2019, a month before Covid-19 would be identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
She left behind a skin sample smaller than a dime. Two tests conducted more than six months later yielded traces of the novel coronavirus, according to research published in January by the British Journal of Dermatology.
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