Delta, Low Vaccination Rates Drive 4th Pandemic Wave in ME

By Staff, Agencies 

The World Health Organization [WHO] warned Thursday the Delta variant has led to a "surge" in coronavirus outbreaks triggering a "fourth wave" in the Middle East, where vaccination rates remain low.

The global health body said the highly transmissible strain, first detected in India, has been recorded in 15 out of the 22 countries and territories of the region under its purview, stretching from Morocco to Pakistan.

"The circulation of the Delta variant is fueling the surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in an increasing number of countries in WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region," it said in a statement.

The director of WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region, Ahmed al-Mandhari, further stated that “Most of the new cases and hospitalized patients are unvaccinated people. We are now in the fourth wave of Covid-19 across the region.”

As of the last week of July, “only 41 million people, or 5.5 percent, of the region's population, had been fully vaccinated,” the WHO said. 

Infections have increased by 55 percent, and deaths by 15 percent, in the last month compared to the month before. More than 310,000 case and 3,500 deaths have been recorded weekly.