“It is very likely that the delta variant will be very widespread during the summer, especially among young people who have not been vaccinated,” said ECDC Director Andrea Ammon.
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Although the alpha variant originally detected in Britain now still predominates in the region, the centre’s models predict that the delta variant, first discovered in India, will account for 70 per cent of new infections in the EU in early August and 90 per cent in late August.
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The ECDC has called for an acceleration of vaccination to protect the variant from 40 to 60 percent more contagious than the alpha variant. In laboratories and real life, studies show that a single dose of the vaccine provides only limited protection against the delta. At present, according to the ECDC, around 30 percent of people over the age of 80 and around 40 percent over the age of 60 do not have a completed vaccination in the EU.
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On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on other European states to require, like Germany, to quarantine passengers from countries with a high incidence of the delta variant.
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“In our country, when you come from Britain, you have to go to quarantine. And this is not the case in all European countries, and I would like it to be so, “said the Chancellor in the Bundestag.
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