China News Service, May 4. According to Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao", Israeli researchers recently found that the delta strain is still spreading stealthily while the spread of the new coronavirus variant strain Omicron is accelerating.
The researchers warn that the delta strain could make a comeback while the Omicron strain "decays."
Data map: Israel under the epidemic.
Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev issued a communiqué on May 2, local time, explaining the results of the study.
The researchers monitored wastewater in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba between December 2021 and January 2022 and found that the delta strain did not disappear while the Omicron strain accelerated. is still spreading stealthily.
The prediction model developed by the research team shows that the transmission of the Omicron strain will gradually weaken or even disappear in the next few months, but the delta strain will continue to spread, which may lead to a new wave of delta strain infections. trend, or new mutant strains appear.
The research has been published in the academic journal "Total Environmental Science", the report said.
As of now, the World Health Organization has identified five new coronavirus mutant strains that need attention, namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron.
Since the first three strains have been significantly less transmissible, WHO in March classified them as "previously circulating strains of concern" and the Delta and Omicron strains as "transmitting strains of concern" strains".