Research shows that strain B.1.1.7 of the new coronavirus is significantly more lethal than previous variants.
An extremely infectious variant of COVID-19 first discovered in the UK is 30 to 100% more deadly than previous strains, the researchers said.
In a study that compared death rates among people in the UK infected with the variant known as B.1.1.7 with those infected with other strains, scientists said the new strain had a “significantly higher” mortality. big”.
Published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday, the study in the UK showed that the infection with what is known as the “UK variant” led to 227 deaths in a sample of 54,906 patients with COVID-19, compared with 141 of the same number of patients infected with other variants.
“Along with its ability to spread rapidly, this makes B.1.1.7 a threat that should be taken seriously,” said Robert Challen, a researcher at the University of Exeter who led the research.
B.1.1.7 was first detected in English county Kent in September 2020 and has since become the dominant strain in the UK.
It has spread rapidly abroad and since then, more than 100 countries have reported cases.
The variant has 23 mutations in its genetic code – a relatively large number of changes – and some of these have made it much more capable of spreading.
Scientists in the UK say it is about 40-70 percent more transmissible than the first wave coronavirus.
Its rapid spread to the UK at the end of last year fueled an increase in the number of cases and deaths and, on January 4, forced a new national blockade – the third in the country since the pandemic began.
To date, the UK has registered over 4.3 million cases of COVID-19. The virus has killed nearly 125,000 people nationwide – one of the worst death toll in the world.
In an attempt to stem the crisis, officials have launched a mass inoculation action, which has seen more than 22.5 million people – about a third of Britain’s adult population – receive at least one dose of vaccine to date.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last month he was confident that the vaccines currently used in the UK – produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNtech – are “effective in protecting against death and serious illness”.
His comments came amid fears about the emergence of two other highly infectious virus strains – the so-called Brazilian and South African variants, known to scientists as 20I / 501Y.V2 or B.1.351 and P, respectively. .1.
According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 vaccines that are under development or have been approved in different parts of the world are expected to provide at least some protection against new variants.