Saudi: Delta variant reported among new virus cases
The Delta variant of COVID-19 is present in Saudi Arabia, where all of the coronavirus mutations are followed through genetic sequencing, Health Ministry spokesperson Dr. Mohammed Al Abdali said on Sunday.
Daily infections declined 48 percent during August, to 542 on Sunday, from 1,043 on August 4.
Al Abdali added 13 deaths were registered, bringing the total deaths to 8,412 and 1,041 recoveries, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 523,050, from 538,525 confirmed cases,
As people began to feel some hope early this summer that the pandemic could recede, there was still the threat that new mutations could bring it perhaps stronger.
Delta swept rapidly through India and the UK before reaching the United States, where it is now the predominant variant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described Delta as more transmissible than the common cold and influenza, as well as the viruses that cause smallpox, MERS, SARS, and Ebola — and called it as contagious as chickenpox.
