Higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, said Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization technical lead on Covid-19, suggesting that while it may be more transmissible this does not necessarily equate to a greater death risk.
She said that the Delta variant is about 50% more transmissible than ancestral strains of Sars-CoV-2, that first emerged in China in late 2019. A few countries have reported increased hospitalisation rates but higher rates of mortality have not been recorded from the Delta variant, she said.