Evidence of a new variant of Covid associated with higher mortality

LONDON – There is “some evidence” that a new variant of Covid first identified in the UK could be more deadly than the original strain, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

“We have been informed today that in addition to spreading more rapidly, there also appears to be some evidence to indicate that the new variant, the variant that was first discovered in London and the south-east (England), a higher degree of mortality, “Johnson told a news conference.

He added that all evidence suggests that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford University, the two currently used in the UK, remain effective against old and new variants of the virus.

The evidence is still in a preliminary stage and is being evaluated by the advisory group for new and emerging respiratory virus threats, which advises the British government.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7., Has an unusually high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

Scientists first detected this mutation in September. The variant of concern has since been detected in at least 44 countries, including the United States, which has reported its presence in 12 states.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the modeled trajectory of the variant in the United States “presents rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March.”

Speaking Friday alongside Johnson, the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said there is now new early evidence that there is a greater risk for those with the new variant, compared to ‘old virus.

“If you took … a sixty-year-old man, the average risk is that for every 1,000 infected people, about ten were expected to die from the virus. With the new variant, for every 1,000 infected people about 13 or 14 years old you could waiting for people to die, ”he added.