Kent variant ‘up to twice as likely’ to cause death

THE Kent variant of coronavirus that swept across the UK at the end of last year may be up to twice as deadly as previous strains, according to a new study.

As well as being more infectious, the B117 variant was found to cause a significantly higher mortality rate among adults diagnosed in the community.

It is between 30 per cent and 100 per cent more deadly, researchers from Exeter and Bristol universities said.

Lead author Robert Challen said: ‘In the community, death from Covid-19 is still a rare event, but the B117 variant raises the risk.

‘Coupled with its ability to spread rapidly, this makes B117 a threat that should be taken seriously.’

Researchers found that the variant first detected in Kent led to 227 deaths in a sample of 54,906 patients – compared with 141 among the same number of closely matched patients who had the previous strains.

The now-dominant variant is more transmissible and is thought to have contributed towards the rapid increase in cases before new lockdown rules were introduced across the UK.

According to the study in the British Medical Journal, people who would previously have been considered low risk began to be admitted to hospital when the Kent strain emerged.

Bristol university’s Leon Danon, the senior author, said: ‘We focused our analysis on cases that occurred between November 2020 and January 2021, when both the old variants and the new variant were present in the UK. This meant we were able to maximise the number of “matches” and reduce the impact of other biases. Subsequent analyses have confirmed our results.

‘Sars-CoV-2 appears able to mutate quickly, and there is a real concern that other variants will arise with resistance to rapidly rolled out vaccines.’

He added that monitoring for new variants ‘needs to be a key part of the public health response in the future’.

Colleague Ellen Brooks-Pollock said: ‘It was fortunate the mutation happened in a part of the genome covered by routine testing.

‘Future mutations could arise and spread unchecked.’

Research suggests the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs are just as effective against the Kent variant as they were against the original strain of the virus.