The Delta variant of COVID-19 (also known as B16172), which was first detected in India in October last year, is becoming the dominant variant of the disease worldwide.
It is spreading rapidly across the globe and being vaccinated may not be enough to protect yourself from this highly contagious variant, the agency said asking people to continue wearing masks, maintain social distancing and other COVID-appropriate behaviours.
“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves. Vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission. People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, hand hygiene … the physical distance, avoid crowding. This still continues to be extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated when you have a community transmission ongoing,” Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said during a news briefing, as quoted by IANS.