First Case of New Delta Variant Diagnosed in Israel

Health officials in Israel disclosed on Tuesday that a child who came into the country from Moldova has been diagnosed with a sub-variant of the Delta mutation of the coronavirus, which has already raised alarm bells in the United Kingdom. Officials in the UK are closely monitoring the AY4.2 variant and others are also calling for urgent research into this new mutation. Nonetheless, health officials have disclosed that there is no evidence as yet that the new variant is leading to an increase in coronavirus cases. According to reports, the sub-variant was first detected in an 11-year old boy in Israel who had come into the country from Moldova. 

It was reported that he had been sent into isolation after he was flagged at the airport. Further reports indicated that officials of the Health Ministry were planning to hold a meeting for discussing the worrying new strain. There are concerns that a new strain of the Delta variant could result in a reversing trend in waning infection numbers, after the contagious Delta variant had pummeled the country for months. On Monday, there were a total of 1,486 new infections and the Health Ministry reported that an additional 701 infections had been diagnosed on Tuesday by late afternoon.

The number of people in serious condition is hospitals due to the coronavirus was 354, while the death toll in the country had reached 8,021, which was a day after it had reached the grim milestone of 8,000. AY4.2 was first discovered in the United Kingdom and the infection rates in the country have remained high, even though their vaccination numbers are also on the high side. The total number of cases recorded in the UK on Monday alone were 50,000. A spokesman of the country’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the government was closely monitoring the AY4.2 variant. 

However, they also added that there was no evidence that it also spreads quickly. He added that they would take necessary action if found to be highly infectious. A former commission for the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, Scott Gottlieb called for urgent research into this new variant on Sunday. He said that even though there wasn’t a clear indication that the new mutation was more transmissible, but the new variants should be quickly characterized. He added that they had the tools to do so. The AY4.2 variant had first been sequenced back in April 2020 and it has two spike mutations that exist in two other variants of the coronavirus. 

Only three cases of this sub-variant have been found in the United States and it mostly exists in Britain. Its frequency is still fairly low and it wasn’t responsible for the increase in coronavirus cases in the UK. Other experts have added that the situation with the new sub-variant is not like the Alpha and the Delta variants because they were a lot more transmissible than this one. There is only a small increase in transmissibility and it wouldn’t have a significant impact on the pandemic.