Delta Variant confirmed in TCI says Ministry of Health

#TurksandCaicos, August 4, 2021 – Turks and Caicos is advised to keep the guard up, as the Delta Variant has now been detected in the country and at least three of the cases are from Community spread.  One case is imported. 

Turks and Caicos sent eight samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency lab in Trinidad and Tobago to test for the Delta Variant; 50 per cent or four of the results came back positive for what is described as the most infectious variant of Covid-19. 

The information came in a Sunday press release and, after all of the individuals who would have had the variant are completed their quarantines and are now recovered from the coronavirus.  One of the cases is imported, detected in a tourist who was unvaccinated. 

The three others were local; so there was community spread of the Delta confirmed Health Minister, E. Jay Saunders.  Of the four cases one person was fully vaccinated; the individual was from the local community. 

The Delta variant is so infectious that it is not only being contracted by fully vaccinated individuals but is being spread by them according to some data. 

Advice is for the fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks; mask wearing mandates in the Turks and Caicos are still a part of the health regulations, so it remains the law to don face coverings. 

Turks and Caicos has so far been confirmed with three of four Viruses of Concern or VOCs.  The UK strain or Alpha; the Brazilian strain or Gamma and now the India strain, also known as Delta. 

The announcement about the detection of the Delta strain came as the Turks and Caicos finds itself a mere three percentage points away from having 70 per cent of residents fully vaccinated. 

According to the Minister of Health on Sunday, 67 per cent of residents are now vaccinated for the Coronavirus.  Some 71 per cent have had one jab. 

Grand Turk up to Monday had one new case of Covid-19; now at four active cases after spending weeks at zero.  Providenciales has 24 cases of the Coronavirus active.  Hospitalizations remain at zero in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Meanwhile, details from a CDC report have emerged with striking and concerning findings about this new “fittest and fastest” coronavirus variant.

The Delta variant is as contagious as the chicken pox, spreads as easily as the common cold and Ebola and has a longer transmission window and viral loads in fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people are almost identical which means the vaccine is not slowing this variant down. 

The CDC report and its findings are the subject of numerous stories by leading global news organisations. 

The medical community is scrambling for a tactical response to the data as the CDC appears to flip-flop on its messages about coping with Covid. 

Older people are seriously at risk, even if they are vaccinated – for hospitalization and for death with the advancement of the Delta. 

Among the 162 million Americans vaccinated; 35,000 are symptomatic due to Delta. 

The fear now is that these findings will undermine confidence in the vaccines. 

One study found that 74 percent of the new infections were in fully vaccinated people; cutting down the “miracle” mantra pitched about the 7-month old vaccines.

The experts still say the best defence against the Delta strain of the coronavirus is the vaccine.  There is now discussion about a booster shot to fight off the Delta Variant.