U.K variant spreads faster and hits harder
A new study raises more concerns about the English variant
Despite a strict lockdown since Christmas the U.K. corona variant is continuing to spread almost unabated.
Numbers from Denmark’s Staten Serum Institut show the variant was confirmed in about 60% of all sequenced positive tests done so far last week. It notes more tests are still being sequenced to screen for variants so that number may yet rise.
The terrifying speed of the U.K. variant’s growth is evident when you consider it grew from 2% of all sequenced positive tests in the last week of December to 60% just eight weeks later. Never mind the country has been in a corona lockdown the entire time.
On Twitter Professor Mads Albertsen, the co-founder of DNASense said of the variant’s growth and where it might go.
“Denmark is slowly re-opening and vaccinations are increasing. Complex to disentangle effects going forward.”
It is not just that the U.K. variant is more contagious, evidence is mounting that its impacts on those it infects is also much more severe.
The SSI released a study today that seems to show the variant carries a 64% greater risk of hospitalizations.
Tyra Grove Krause, SSI Acting Technical Director, says the findings are in line with other studies.
“We do not know the explanation for the fact that B.1.1.7 increases the risk of being admitted. But our figures point in the same direction as several other studies from the UK, which show that B.1.1.7 may have more serious impacts.”
The good news is the study also seemed to confirm current vaccines are all effective against the U.K. variant.
The SSI study is a pre-print and has yet to be peer reviewed.
There are other concerning developments on the COVID variant front.
The number of people infected with the newly discovered B1.525 variant is now at 77. The strain is classified as a ‘Variant of Interest’ because it has the E484K mutation, or the escape mutation because it helps the virus evade the body’s defenses.
The Staten Serum Institut says the new strain makes up 77% of all infections cases involving the E484K mutation in Denmark.
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says two more South African variant infections have been confirmed in Denmark. Heunicke says in both cases there were no links to travel, which increases worries about community transmission. There are now 13 confirmed infections of the variant with nine of the infections being travel related.