“Possibility of increase and epidemic of delta variant in our country,” announced a member of the Scientific Committee for Corona Control on Radio Goftogoo.
In an interview with Radio Goftogoo ‘Morning Dialogue’, Alireza Naji spoke about the changed variant of covid-19 (delta) and its pathogenic characteristics; “Unfortunately, we entered the fifth peak of the corona disease, but we are still in the first wave.”
He called Iran the only country that has remained in the first wave and only experienced different peaks, and said: "Delta variant is more immunity evading than alpha, in fact we are facing a variant that can be globally dominant.”
Naji attributed 94% of the West Covid-19 cases to the delta variant and continued; “It’s quite possible that the same thing happened in Iran, but the difference is that we didn’t perform Covid genetic monitoring.”
“Over the last two or three weeks, most Covid-19 cases were probably of the delta variant,” he added.
“People are more infected in this variant, and the previous protocols are true of this variant too,” declared Naji on Radio Goftogoo.
He then emphasized that just as before, this variant is transmitted through breathing; “The virus exacerbates the infection and increases the rate of proliferation.”
Naji stated that the virus mainly spreads through the respiratory system; “In the fifth peak, people get infected as a family, and therefore the transmission rate is greatly increased.”
The member of Iran Scientific Committee against Covid-19 stressed; “We should stop travelling and immigration in our country. This is regretful and indicates our passiveness.”
“Right now it’s not the time to argue whether the virus is man-made, rather we should try not to let the virus spread and multiply, which will in in turn lead to a change in the virus genome,” emphasized Naji in his interview with Radio Goftogo.
“Numerous variants were observed in Africa, Brazil and India, and the delta variant is an example of the virus in Delta, where this variant was originated,” he added.
“Viral changes are the result of the virus multiplying and circulating in a community, which leads to genetic change,” Naji explained.
“A wave is defined when the disease enters a community and the country reduces it based on its policies, but unfortunately we didn’t enforce such policies,” he said.
By Azadeh Khajeh Nasiri
