We already knew that the English variant is more contagious than the classic coronavirus virus. A new English study sheds new light on the subject. Published in the medical journal BMJ, the study reveals that the British variant is 64% more lethal than the original strain.
The British variant associated with a higher risk of mortality
Last January, NERVTAG (a group that advises the government on the threat posed by new and emerging respiratory viruses) told the British government that it was possible that English variant infection was associated with a higher risk of mortality. The specialists had thus estimated that the lethality of the variant could be 30 to 40% higher than the initial strain of the coronavirus.
A new study published this Wednesday, March 10, 2021 in the medical journal BMJ just confirms these observations. Indeed, according to the researchers, not only is the English variant more contagious but in addition, it is much more deadly than the original virus. According to study data, per 1,000 cases detected, the strain of the English variant causes 4.1 deaths compared with 2.5 deaths for the classic coronavirus.
The English variant 64% more deadly than the classic coronavirus
To reach this conclusion, the scientists studied the data of 110,000 patients who tested positive (outside the hospital) between the months of October and January. Each person was followed for 28 days. Of all the individuals, half were infected with the classic coronavirus and the other half with the English variant. This allowed researchers to compare the risk of mortality while taking into account the factors of age, sex or ethnic origin. In the end, specialists noted 141 deaths in people infected with the classic coronavirus against 227 in patients with the British variant. In addition, the English variant is 64% more deadly than its original virus.
It should be noted that the patients followed were tested outside the hospital, which leads the researchers to think that if the conclusions of the study are generalized to the whole population, this would mean the English variant ” has the potential to cause substantial additional mortality ”Compared to the classic virus.
