Delta cases show 300 times higher viral load

People infected with the more transmissible Delta variant have a viral load 300 times higher than those with the original version of the Covid-19 virus when symptoms are first observed, a South Korea study found.

But the amount gradually decreased over time - to 30 times in four days and over 10 times in nine days - and matched levels seen in other variants after 10 days, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

"But it doesn't mean Delta is 300 times more infectious ... we think its transmission rate is 1.6 times the Alpha variant [first found in the UK], and about two times the original version of the virus," a health ministry official, Lee Sang Won, said.

REUTERS