New restrictions amid global fight to contain Delta variant

Authorities in several countries – from Bangladesh and Indonesia to Australia and Israel – are racing to contain the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the Coronavirus, while Russia’s Saint Petersburg announced a record death toll, laying bare the challenges faced by nations worldwide in their efforts to return to pre-pandemic life.

While vaccination campaigns have brought down infections in mostly wealthy nations, the rise of the Delta variant has stoked fears of new waves of a virus that has already killed nearly four million people.

“There is currently a lot of concern about the Delta variant,” World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus told a Friday news briefing.

“Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far, has been identified in at least 85 countries and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations.”

In Bangladesh, authorities announced they would impose a new national lockdown from Monday over the variant, with offices shut for a week and only medical-related transport allowed. 

Australia’s largest city Sydney, meanwhile, entered a two-week lockdown, with people ordered to stay home except for essential trips.

Sydney’s new restrictions apply to some five million people, along with hundreds of thousands of others living in nearby towns.

Appropriate policies

New Zealand, citing “multiple outbreaks” in Australia, announced a three-day suspension of its quarantine-free travel arrangement with its larger neighbour.

Australia’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the suspension would give officials time to consider measures “to make the bubble safer, such as pre-departure testing for all flights” between the two countries.

In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo said the country of 270 million people was facing an “extraordinary situation” and pledged to respond with “quick and appropriate policies”. 

 The country recorded more than 21,000 new infections on Saturday, the highest daily tally yet. 

Delta, which was first identified in India in April, is so contagious that experts say more than 80 percent of a population would need to be inoculated in order to contain it – a challenging target even for nations with significant vaccination programmes.

The variant is now responsible for more than 90 percent of all new infections in the United Kingdom and about 30 per cent in the United States.

European scientists estimate Delta is 40 to 60 per cent more contagious than the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), first discovered in the UK, which itself was more infectious than the original virus first detected in late 2019.

“It infects more people. Can spread faster,” vaccinologist Dr Annelies Wilder Smith, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Al Jazeera.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Europe is “on thin ice” as the Delta variant spreads on the continent. 

Her warning came as EU health officials said the variant would account for 90 per cent of the bloc’s cases by late August. The spread could disrupt plans for lifting restrictions during the summer.

The Alpha variant, first discovered in the UK, hit Europe hard early this year and Delta, now dominant in the UK, is thought 40 to 60 per cent more transmissible.

Andrea Ammon, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said on Wednesday that the spread of the Delta variant showed the importance of speeding up vaccinations in Europe, as “preliminary data shows that it can also infect individuals that have received only one dose of the currently available vaccines”. Two doses offered “high protection” against the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, she added.

Delta, first identified in India, now accounts for almost all new infections in the UK. 

On Wednesday, Merkel called for a more co-ordinated EU response and said all member States should quarantine arrivals from the UK considering the dangers of the spread of Delta.

 The UK is not on the EU’s list of safe countries, due to the spread of Delta, but that list is not binding on member States.

Way forward 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that while fully vaccinating people offered “a good way forward” for resuming travel, this summer would not be “like every other. This is going to be a more difficult summer to take a holiday”.

Although cases in France have been falling, Delta is causing concern in an area in the south-west of the country.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex and the country’s health minister visited Les Landes, where the variant accounts for 70 per cent of infections. Across France, it is believed to be behind 10 per cent of cases. Castex described the situation in Les Landes as “difficult but not catastrophic”, before stressing the importance of testing and vaccinations. -AFP