Two doses of vaccine appear to protect effectively against the highly contagious and rapidly spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday.

"Information from concrete tests shows that two doses of vaccine protect against the Delta variant," said Marco Cavaleri, head of EMA's vaccine strategy.

Coronavirus cases have increased again since last week in Europe, after ten consecutive weeks of decline, the Europe section of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday, attributing the increase to this variant.

"We are aware of the concern about the rapid spread of the Delta variant," said Cavaleri.

"Currently, it appears that the four vaccines approved in the European Union (EU) protect against all strains circulating in Europe, including the Delta variant," he added.

These four vaccines approved for the EU by the EMA are Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.

The WHO predicts that the Delta variant, initially detected in India, will be "dominant" between now and August, confirming the forecast of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC, for its acronym in English), which estimated that 90 % of cases within the EU will be due to this variant at that time. 

In the USA the Delta variant has been detected in all 50 states while the spread of misinformation about vaccines continues to be used as a political weapon.