The emergence of new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 – including one in the UK that British officials say could be more deadly than previous versions – signals a future in which health authorities are stuck in a fight with cats and mice. a pathogen that changes shape.
The fastest-growing coronavirus strains that researchers fear could also make people sick or make vaccines less effective threaten to extend blockages and lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, epidemiologists warn. But, they said, it does not mean that the contagion cannot be contained.
“We live in a world where the coronavirus is so widespread and rapidly moving that there will be new variants that will appear,” Anthony Harnden, a doctor advising the British government, told Sky News. “We may be in a situation where we end up with an annual coronavirus vaccine” to deal with emerging strains.
As the new UK variant spread across the country, hospitals were subjected to more stress than in the first wave of the spring pandemic, and the national death toll of Covid-19 is expected to exceed 100,000 in the coming days. But in the week ending Sunday, new daily cases fell 22% from the previous seven days.
Matt Hancock, the UK health secretary, said this was due to national restrictions in place since the beginning of the year. But in a television interview, Mr Hancock warned: “We are a long, long, long way” before the cases are low enough for the restrictions to be lifted.