99.8 per cent of samples sequenced in the Balearics are identified as Delta but the British strain is still dominant in La Rioja
The spread of the delta variant of coronavirus has now made it by far the most dominant one in Spain, according to data published this week by the Centre for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) of the Ministry of Health, accounting for almost 100 per cent of cases analysed in four of the country’s regions.
The regions in question are the Balearics, Aragón, Cantabria and Navarra, with the proportion of cases associated with the delta variant among the samples sequenced reaching as high as 99.8 per cent in the islands. Figures of over 90 per cent are also reported in Andalucía, Catalunya, the Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia and the Basque Country, but in marked contrast are the figures for the regions of La Rioja and Asturias: in La Rioja, only 8 per cent of samples are identified as “Delta probables”, and the dominant strain continues to be the Alpha or British variant.
In the country as a whole, though, so dominant is the Delta variant that the Beta and Gamma strains are barely being detected at all (accounting for under 0.3 per cent of samples sequenced), and no mention is made at all in the latest update of the Lambda variant. In July this strain appeared in Cantabria and other parts of northern Spain, having originated in South America, but it appears to have been displaced by the Delta mutation.
Image: GVA archive
Source: Murcia Today
