The UK strain, which has already spread to over 110 countries, is not just more infectious as previously thought, but is likely to cause more severe illness than other prevailing SARS-CoV2 variants, a new study showed on Monday.

A research team, led by Nicholas Davies, who specialises in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), found that the infection caused by the B.1.1.7 strain could be associated with 55 per cent higher mortality compared to other strains.

The findings emerged from an analysis of the results of over two million Covid-19 tests in England between November 2020 and February this year appeared in the journal Nature on Monday.

The researchers concluded that the emergence of the new variants such as B.1.1.7 could jeopardise the improvements in Covid-19 treatment that were made over the course of 2020. Another LSHTM study published in the Science journal on March 3 had concluded that the new variant, first reported in Kent in September last year, was 43 to 90 per cent more transmissible than pre-existing strains circulating in England.

Air travel stopped

Many countries, including India, temporarily stopped air travel from the UK and introduced more active screening at international airports to track and isolate those with the UK strain in order to stop its further spread. Despite this, over 200 people in India were detected to have the strain.

“England has suffered an enormous toll from B.1.1.7 in the last few months, with 42,000 Covid-19 deaths in January and February 2021 alone. In spite of substantial advances in Covid-19 treatment, we have already seen more deaths in 2021 than we did over the first eight months of the pandemic in 2020. Our work helps to explain why,” said Davies in a statement.

“The B.1.1.7 variant is more transmissible, and our research provides strong evidence that is also causes more severe illness. This should serve as a warning to other countries that they need to remain vigilant against B.1.1.7,” he further said.

Over the last three months, the world has entered a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. While life-saving vaccines against Covid-19 have started to be rolled out in many countries across the globe, SARS-CoV-2, like all viruses, has mutated over time.

Researchers have tracked hundreds of variants of the coronavirus since it was first detected in Wuhan in December 2019. Three new variants of particular concern have emerged in Britain, South Africa, and Brazil. In recent work, these three new variants have been found to spread much more quickly than older variants of SARS-CoV-2.

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