U.K. variant may carry higher risk of death
Vaccines appear to work on it, Johnson says
LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday the new english variant of COVID-19 may be associated with a higher level of mortality, although he said evidence showed that both vaccines being used in the country are effective against it.
Johnson said the impact of the new variant, which is already known to be more transmissible, was putting the health service under “intense pressure.”
Chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said the evidence about mortality levels was “not yet strong,” and came from a “series of different bits of information,” stressing there was great uncertainty around the data.
He said that once people reached hospital, there was no greater risk, but there were signs that people who had the u.k. variant were at more risk overall.
“There’s no real evidence of an increase in mortality for those in hospital. However, when data are looked at in terms of those who’ve been tested positive … there is evidence that there’s an increased risk for those who have the new variant, compared to the old virus,” he said.
He said that for a man in his 60s, the average risk was that 10 in 1,000 people who got infected would be expected to die, but that this rose to roughly 13 or 14 people in 1,000 with the new variant.
“I want to stress that there’s a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it,” he said.
The warning about the higher risk of death from the new variant, which was identified in england late last year, came as a fresh blow after the country had earlier been buoyed by news the number of new COVID-19 infections was estimated to be shrinking by as much as four per cent a day.
data published Friday showed that 5.38 million people had been given their first dose of a vaccine, with 409,855 receiving it in the past 24 hours, a record high so far.
The latest estimates from the health ministry suggest the number of new infections was shrinking by between one and four per cent a day. Last week, it was thought cases were growing by much as five per cent, and the turnaround gave hope that the spread of the virus was being curbed, although the ministry urged caution.
Britain has recorded more than 3.5 million infections and nearly 96,000 deaths — the world’s fifth-highest toll.