The Delta variant now accounts for about 20 per cent of new cases in France, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on France2 TV. That’s double what it was over the past week. While cases overall continue to drop, the variant first found in India “is gradually becoming dominant, like it is in all countries in the world,” he said. But the pace of vaccinations was slowing, Veran said, calling on people to sign up for shots.

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Separately, German Chancellery Minister Helge Braun said the variant probably accounted for about half of cases in Germany, and authorities were pushing to rapidly increase the number of people fully vaccinated. Germany already has the strictest inbound travel rules in Europe for arrivals from designated virus-variant areas, and the Interior Ministry was ready to introduce spot checks at the borders if needed, Braun said in an interview with ZDF television.

Delta also became dominant in South Africa’s Gauteng province in June, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said. Samples analysed showed that 53 per cent of infections this month in Gauteng were due to delta and 37 per cent to the Beta variant first identified in South Africa, the NICD said. In May, 64 per cent of Gauteng’s cases were due to beta.

The variant is concerning experts also because it appears to infect more children than previous mutations of the virus. Indonesia is currently grappling with child infections, with 282 toddlers killed by the variant on one day alone last week.

Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of European adults have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 41 per cent have been fully vaccinated, Ursula Von Der Leyen said at the Brussels Economic Forum overnight.

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“We also have to support our neighbours; we have to support the rest of the world because we will only be able to turn this page when we have reached immunity worldwide,” she said.

Bloomberg