Dangers of new international COVID wave, driven by Delta comeback --Israeli researchers

Israeli researchers warn of new international COVID wave, driven by Delta comeback Omicron didn’t wipe out the previous variant, which is super-resilient and could reemerge with a vengeance, according to peer-reviewed study based on cutting-edge sewage monitoring timesofisrael

There is a real danger of another international COVID wave this summer, with the Delta variant possibly poised to make a comeback, new Israeli research suggests.

The peer-reviewed study is based on cutting-edge Israeli monitoring of sewage, which reveals not only the prevalence of coronavirus cases, but also their variant.

It showed that even at the height of the Omicron wave, the previous Delta variant  hadn’t been wiped out, even though it was expected to be based on the dynamics of previous waves.

After monitoring the patterns of the two variants, the researchers concluded that Omicron and its subvariants are likely to disappear soon, but Delta has shown such strong resilience that it could well reemerge.

“Our findings highlight that the pandemic is not over and suggest that sooner or later there will be another wave, potentially in the summer or at the end of the summer,” Prof. Ariel Kushmaro, who runs the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev wastewater lab that conducted the research, told The Times of Israel. ...