First Israeli diagnosed with ‘descendant’ of Delta COVID variant, sparking concern

This Delta subtype is reportedly 10% to 15% more transmissible than its parent variant.

By World Israel News Staff

An 11-year-old Israeli boy was diagnosed with a “descendant” of the Delta COVID variant that is believed to be at least partially responsible for the recent surge in coronavirus cases in the United Kingdom.

The UK Health Security Agency issued a report last week in which it said that the newly designated AY.4.2 is expanding in England. This Delta subtype is reportedly 10% to 15% more transmissible than its parent variant.

“UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases,” tweeted former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottleib on Sunday.

“The variant has been in the UK since about July, but it has been slowly increasing in prevalence. There’s no clear indication that it’s considerably more transmissible, but we should work to more quickly characterize these and other new variants. We have the tools,” he added. “This is not a cause for immediate concern but a reminder that we need robust systems to identify, characterize new variants. This needs to be a coordinated, global priority for Covid same as similar international efforts have become standard practice in influenza.”

The Israeli boy returned to Israel from Moldova. He was in quarantine when the diagnosis was made, and the Health Ministry said that no further cases have yet to be discovered.

“The investigation is ongoing,” the ministry said. “The Health Ministry regularly monitors all types of variants and their development.”

Israel has been experiencing a decline in its daily infection and serious cases rate in the last couple of weeks, mostly sparked by a strong booster shot campaign. Some 3.8 million Israelis have had a COVID booster shot.