UK variant coronavirus strain significantly more transmissible – study

The new variant of the coronavirus discovered in England that made headlines just before Christmas is apparently more transmissible than the original viral strain, according to research conducted by Imperial College London in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Health (WHO) and other UK based educational institutions. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, says people infected with the variant strain, known as B.1.1.7., Are more likely to transmit virus to others and infect more people than The original. Technically, the affected variant has an “additive increase” in transmissibility (R) of a range of 0.4 to 0.7, with a “multiplicative increase” in transmissibility that “ranged between a 50% advantage and 75% ”. Unlike previous genetic variants which reached high prevalence, we see the expansion of the variant of concern from the UK and a pattern of faster epidemic growth in tandem with the expansion of the Oncern variant has been repeated. in several regions, “the study authors wrote. The number of cases in Britain has skyrocketed in recent weeks due to the variant of the virus – which has emerged in all corners of the world – forcing several countries to close their borders to British passengers in hopes of preventing the spread of the new variant in their home country. Like other countries in Europe, Britain is struggling to contain new waves of One of the worst-affected countries in the world, it on Friday recorded 53,285 cases in the past 24 hours and 613 new deaths. The rise in cases compares to the 55,892 reported Thursday, while the death toll mar only a drop from the 964 reported the day before.

The UK has recorded more than 50,000 new daily cases of the virus in the past four days, in part due to a worrying variant that is much more contagious and an increase in the number of people dying every day. British health officials have reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the pandemic to deal with an increase in COVID-19 cases which is putting existing services under extreme pressure, especially in London. warned they were struggling to cope, especially when so many colleagues were sick or had to self-isolate, and paramedics and nurses had to treat patients in ambulances due to a shortage of available beds. An email to Royal London Hospital staff said he was now in ‘disaster medicine mode’. . “ Reuters contributed to this report.