6. DELTA HAS COMPLETELY OUTCOMPETED LAMBDA: The Delta variant has completely overtaken Lambda. Delta, from the B.1.617 genetic lineage, is now the key driver of the pandemic. Infections peaked globally on January 7, 2021 (1.72 million cases in one day), as per the Johns Hopkins University tracker site. The variant has been dominant in India’s largest outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2021. With lockdowns, global cases dropped to 442,000 daily around March 30, 2021, before the numbers shot up to 826,034 by April 26, 2021. It dropped to 362,954, on June 21 before it nearly doubled in a fresh“wave” to 628,361 cases reported on August 8, 2021.
AFP