Beta
According to infectious diseases specialists, Beta was about twice as contagious as the original coronavirus strain. They also point out that the strain only circulated for a couple of months at the beginning of 2021, so they don’t have enough data about vaccine prevention.
Furthermore, Beta had been outcompeted by the time the vaccines became available on a large scale. The variant wasn’t seen often in the US, experts add.
Compared to other COVID variants like Omicron or Delta, Beta was less contagious and isn’t currently circulating. It had no special variants either.
Delta
Delta was less contagious compared to other COVID variants, like Omicron, and isn’t currently circulating. Experts note that even though it wasn’t as contagious as Omicron, Delta caused about twice as many infections as its predecessors.
According to a report, those infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England had double the hospitalization risk with Delta compared to Alpha.
The good news is that current vaccines are very effective at protecting against Delta.
Major subvariants at this time in the US include Delta Plus.
