The President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, shared today the alert made by the Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, about the high danger that the presence of the Delta strain represents in the country, a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The Delta strain is extremely contagious, the president warned in his message on the social network Twitter, and called on everyone to cooperate with protection and isolation while vaccination progresses.

“I share the alert issued by our Minister of Health @japortalmiranda and I call on everyone to cooperate with protection and isolation while vaccination progresses. The #Delta strain is extraordinarily contagious, ”Díaz-Canel tweeted.

This Wednesday, the Cuban Minister of Public Health pointed out that the main alarm that Delta brings with it is its high contagiousness, with a 64 percent (%) increase compared to the Alpha variant, which is between 40-50% more transmissible compared to the original Wuhan virus (a thousand times more contagious).

The head of Public Health warned that Delta is two times more transmissible than previous strains of the coronavirus, while infections by this variant have a shorter incubation period (just four days) and a much greater amount of viral particles.

The scientific evidence processed by the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), indicates that in Cuba this variant has replaced Beta, with a sustained increase since last June. In the current month of August, Delta has become the predominant strain, its presence has being detected in all Cuban provinces, Portal Miranda warned.

As he wrote, until August 15, Delta occupied 92% of the samples processed in the month, so, he pointed out, it is important that people know that Cuban science does not stand idly by in this scenario and the work in the Laboratories has focused on searching and determining the presence of virus neutralizing antibodies in those people vaccinated with Abdala and Soberana 02.