'It is very clear...': Fauci describes Delta Covid-19 variant as 'nasty'

Dr Anthony Fauci, however, reiterated that vaccines being used in the US do protect against the Delta variant.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to US president Joe Biden, on Sunday described the Delta variant of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as "nasty," also reiterating that Covid-19 vaccines being used in the US "do protect against the Delta variant."

Dr Anthony Fauci (File Photo/Bloomberg)

"It is very clear that this is a nasty variant and has a much greater capacity of transmitting from person to person," Fauci, the US' top infectious diseases expert, said. "Covid-19 vaccines being used in America to fight the coronavirus are working very well and do protect against the Delta variant," he further said.

Fauci also described the presence of this "nasty" variant in the US as "bad news" while the "good news," he said, is that "we have a vaccine that works against Covid-19." The top doctor has previously described Delta or the B.1.617.2 strain, which was first detected in India last year, as the "biggest threat to our nation's pandemic response."

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC), the Delta variant accounts for more than 25% or one-fourth of the total active Covid-19 cases in the country, and has reached nearly every state. Speaking on July 4, on the occasion of the country's 245th Independence Day, president Joe Biden remarked that the US has gained "upper hand" against the virus, though he also warned that Covid-19 "has not been vanquished," describing the Delta variant as "powerful."

The US has registered 33,849,624 infections of Covid-19 since the pandemic struck early last year, according to the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University. A total of 607,139 people in the country have lost their lives due to the viral disease, as per Johns Hopkins. Globally, the US has the highest number of cases on both counts.

(With ANI inputs)