WHO Reports Larger Geographic Distribution of Dangerous Coronavirus Strains

Over the past week, the highly infectious alpha, beta, gamma and delta strains of the coronavirus have expanded their geography. The number of countries and territories reporting the presence of strains of concern continues to grow, gazeta.ru reports, citing who.int. In particular, the number of territories where "alpha" circulates increased over the week from 185 to 190, "beta" - from 136 to 138, "gamma" - from 81 to 82 and "delta" - from 142 to 148. According to data provided by WHO, over the past week, the incidence of COVID-19 in the world has increased by 4%. At the same time, the number of deaths practically did not increase compared to the previous week. As previously reported by the director of the State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology "Vector" Rinat Maksyutov, in the future, vaccines against coronavirus will contain 2-3 strains of SARS-CoV-2 at once. According to him, annually or twice a year, the WHO committee will decide to change the composition of vaccines in terms of strains in order to obtain population immunity.