Ecuador sees 85 cases of Delta variant of COVID-19

26 were registered in the southern province of El Oro, the hardest hit by the pandemic and where there is already community transmission of the variant.

QUITO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador has registered a total of 85 cases of the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus, after confirming another 45 cases in recent days, Minister of Public Health Ximena Garzon said Tuesday.

The official said in a virtual press conference that the new cases were detected over the weekend and on Monday in six provinces of the South American country.

The cases were identified "thanks to the epidemiological surveillance strategy that we have implemented through the Ministry of Public Health and the laboratory network made up of universities," she explained.

Of the 45 new cases of the Delta variant, 26 were registered in the southern province of El Oro, the hardest hit by the pandemic and where there is already community transmission of the variant, said Garzon.

In the other five provinces, "there is currently no community transmission" of the variant initially detected in India, Garzon added.

Ecuador registered 482,947 cases of COVID-19 infection and 30,321 deaths from the disease as of Monday, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.