With coronavirus infections linked to the Delta variant rising across the United Kingdom, European countries are watching carefully. 

The variant, first discovered in India in April, is understood to be more contagious compared to other strains of the coronavirus. 

Currently, 96 percent of UK cases have the genetic makeup of the Delta variant, compared to less than 8 percent in Germany in France.

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The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's infectious disease authority, has warned that it's only a matter of time until Europe is facing a similar situation. 

"It is not a question of if Delta will become dominant but a question of when," said Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute for Disease Control. "We must closely watch this development because it depends on our behavior and how we implement the coronavirus prevention measures." 

To keep variants away, Germany and other EU countries have imposed travel restrictions on countries where "emerging variants pose a threat." Brazil, India, and the United Kingdom are currently subject to restricted travel. 

Yet border closures have proved to only do so much in keeping variants away. Laboratories across Germany have taken on a new responsibility since the contagious Alpha variant was first announced by the UK in December. 

Roughly 10 percent of positive tests go through genome sequencing, which analyzes the samples for valuable viral clues. Researchers are eventually able to derive how common more infectious strains are becoming through a random sample of cases. 

Dr. Björn Rotter and his team of scientists say they have seen the genetic makeup of Germany's COVID-19 cases change over the past six months.

The original strain of the virus from March 2020 was quickly overtaken by the Alpha variant in March, despite a nationwide lockdown. 

"It was very obvious that the amount of Delta variant has risen. We are now at about 6 percent, maybe even more," said Dr. Rotter, Chief Scientific Officer at GenXPro. 

"Of course, but we are expecting it to grow further because it has grown already from 3 to 6 percent in a very short time."