WHO urges nations to take action before more deadlier COVID variants emerge

The World Health Organization on Friday said that the Delta COVID variant, which first emerged in India last year, is a warning to the world to suppress coronavirus quickly before it further mutates again into something worse. 

The Delta variant, which is highly transmissible, has now been detected in 132 nations and territories, the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan said, adding, "Delta is a warning: it's a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge."

"So far, four variants of concern have emerged -- and there will be more as long as the virus continues to spread," he said.

The second wave of COVID-19 in India was triggered by the rapid spread of the Delta variant. 

The COVID infections due to the Delta variant have increased by 80 percent in the past four weeks in five of the six World Health Organization regions, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said. 

While Delta is spreading fastly and has shaken many nations, the WHO's emergencies director said that the social distancing guidelines, wearing masks, hand hygiene, and avoiding long periods indoors in poorly ventilated, busy places has still worked in bring the transmission under control. 

"They (COVID prevention measures) are stopping the Delta strain, especially when you add in vaccination," Ryan said.

He added, "The virus has got fitter, the virus has got faster. The game plan still works, but we need to implement and execute our game plan much more efficiently and much more effectively then we've ever done before."