The Delta variant was previously known as the “Indian variant”, as it was first discovered in the Indian state of Maharashtra in late 2020 and has since spread throughout the country, displacing the Alpha variant and other pre-existing lineages of COVID-19, according to a recent study.

It’s The Most Contagious 

Scientists have recently reached an agreement after months of data collection, revealing that the delta variant of the coronavirus is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads two to three times faster than the original virus and is currently dominating the outbreak in the United States, accounting for more than 80% of COVID cases.

The Delta is also more effective at cell destruction due to a mutation at position 681 of its spike protein, which is rapidly becoming common in other variants around the world and is thought to be an evolutionary game changer. 

This P681R mutation facilitates Delta and related Kappa variants' invasion of the host cell, by fusing infected cells into structures known as a syncytium.

Kei Sato, a virologist at The University of Tokyo in Japan explained that “in cell culture experiments, we discovered that the Delta variant has more syncytia than SARS-CoV-2.” 

The Delta variant's spike protein has also experienced multiple mutations, which seem to improve the virus's ability to bind to the ACE2 receptor and evade the immune response.

Vaccines Still Work Well 

A new report stressed that only a complete dose of the COVID-19 vaccine can protect against this deadly variant, which is now dominant in the US, UK, and more than a dozen other countries.

According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines are likely to protect against Delta, though not as well as they did against previous variants.

Even though vaccines can effectively slow down the contagious pandemic by increasing herd immunity, precautionary measures such as social distancing and masking are proven policies along with vaccination in curbing the spread of the virus.