The Delta strain that first appeared in India was quickly present in 92 countries, considered the `smartest` variation of the original strain that caused the pandemic with the ability to hunt vulnerable people, especially

Medical staff test for Covid-19 at a rapid drive-through testing site at St.Vicent Hospital in Sydney on June 27.

Research carried out in the UK, where the Delta variant accounts for 99% of new Covid-19 cases, shows that it is 60% more infectious than the Alpha variant, the main variant causing infection in the UK during this period.

`This is a matter of survival, as we are completely dependent on vaccines until we reach herd immunity. We need to reach a higher rate of immunity to protect our ability to fight against more contagious strains.`

`It speaks to the fact that we really need to get the number of infections down, at the same time as rapidly rolling out the vaccine campaign.`

The call for caution comes at a time when studies in Australia show how easily the Delta variant is transmissible.

At that time, Sydney did not require wearing masks.

The Delta strain is contagious, but scientists have not determined why.

It is possible for people to be infected by being near a carrier for a few seconds, if the carrier exhales a quantity of virus particles that the other person happens to inhale at the right time.

`It doesn’t always infect people this way, but it could be one of countless unlucky times,` she said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) encourages fully vaccinated people to `stay safe` by wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and taking other safety measures to deal with the Delta variant.

Israel, where 55% of the population has been fully vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine, re-imposed the mask wearing requirement last weekend, in the context of the number of Covid-19 cases infected with the Delta variant increasing rapidly just 10 days after lifting the regulation.

Noakes said the number of infections increased in Israel but the number of hospitalizations and deaths did not increase, so the move was precautionary.

`The virus is circulating throughout society, so even if it doesn’t record a high number of deaths, it is still disrupting people’s lives, forcing people into quarantine, or causing people to become chronically ill.`

Griffin believes that the ideal scenario is to build a vaccine wall for yourself before being exposed to the virus because if an epidemic breaks out, only a few people are infected and the basic infection coefficient (R) still does not exceed 1.

`The problem is that we have not yet achieved that level of protection, so if infected, the number of cases increases, there will be more sources of virus spread,` he said.