Covid, Iss: Delta variant responsible for 88% of cases

• Iss: death rate 8 times higher in unvaccinated over 80s

• Iss: prevalent Delta variant, 18 regions at moderate risk, stable incidence

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03 September 2021 "In Italy, in the last 45 days, a predominance of

has continued to be observed,

which has been identified in

reported to the Integrated Surveillance System".

These are the data contained in the eighth bulletin of the Higher Institute of Health 'Prevalence and distribution of variants of Sars-Cov-2 of interest for public health in Italy ". From July 17 to August 30, in fact, according to the data in the bulletin , the number of reports of cases caused by the Delta variant in Italy is still higher than the number of reports for all the other variants monitored.

New cases of infection caused by the Delta variant have been reported in almost all Italian provinces. The number of cases caused by the Alfa variant, on the other hand, continues to be in sharp decline, as well as their territorial diffusion. Cases caused by the Gamma variant also continue to decrease, with a localized and limited diffusion in some Italian regions and autonomous provinces.

The Delta variant is characterized by greater transmissibility than the alpha variant (between 40% and 60%) and is associated with a high risk of infection in partially vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals. The predominance of the Delta variant is also confirmed by the

coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità with the support of the Bruno Kessler Foundation and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Regions and Autonomous Provinces, which estimated a national prevalence of

. The sample requested for the survey was randomly selected by the Regions from among the positive samples, guaranteeing geographical representativeness and by age groups.