“We’ve been told that in addition to spreading faster … there’s some evidence that the new variant … could be more associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson said at a news conference Friday .
“The two vaccines we are currently using continue to be effective both against the old variant and against this new variant,” he added.
Vallance said patients hospitalized with the new variant did not appear to have a higher risk of dying compared to those hospitalized with the original form of the virus.
“However, when data are taken in terms of … anyone who has tested positive, there is evidence that there is a higher risk for those who have the new variant compared to the old one. [one.]”
Vallance added that the evidence was not yet solid and that the data remained uncertain.
“If you took … a 60-year-old man, the average risk is that for every 1,000 infected people, about 10 were expected to die from the virus. With the new variant, for every 1,000 infected people, about 13 o that 14 people died, “he said Friday.
Vallance added: “This is the exchange rate for this age type, an increase from 10 to 13 or 14 per 1,000 and you will see that, in addition, between the different age groups, there is a similar increase. of risk. “
The new variant was first detected in the south-east of England and is believed to be 30 to 70% more transmissible than previous ones, Vallance said.
The UK recorded 1,401 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours, according to government data, which rose from the daily increase of 1,290 deaths on Thursday.
The total number of people who have died in the country in the 28 days following a positive test is 95,981.
Vallance said Friday that there was “growing evidence” that existing Covid-19 vaccines would work against the UK strain, but sounded a cautionary note on variants detected in Brazil and South Africa.
“We are more concerned that they have certain characteristics which means they may be less susceptible to vaccines,” he said, although he added that researchers needed “more clinical information” about the variants.
English medical director Chris Whitty said on Friday that there were “definite signs of improvement” in both the number of people infected with coronavirus in England and in hospital admission data.
The number of new Covid-19 infections recorded in the UK over the past 24 hours is also rising on Thursday’s figure. A total of an additional 40,261 cases have been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases registered in the UK since the pandemic began to be 3,583,907.
Public Health England has continued to urge citizens to comply with government guidelines, warning once again on Friday that “not everyone with coronavirus has symptoms” and urging people to stay home.
The UK remains strictly closed.