The Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) variant, first discovered in the United Kingdom late last year, has spread around the world, researchers said today (10), adding that the variant is not only easier to spread, but its death rate is 30 to 100 percent higher than the old virus.
Reuters reported that scientists said that in a study comparing British people infected with the Variant virus B117 to those infected with other strains of the virus, the mortality rate of the variant was found to be “significantly higher”.
The variant of the new coronavirus, B117, was first identified in the United Kingdom in September 2020 and has now been found in more than 100 countries worldwide as the outbreak has spread. Its genome has acquired a relatively large number of mutations, 23 in total, some of which make the virus more transmissible.
British scientists say B117 is 40 to 70 percent more transmissible than the new coronavirus that used to circulate mainly.
A British study published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal noted that 227 of the 54,906 patients infected with the variant virus died, but only 141 of the same number of patients infected with other variants died.
“This, combined with the ability to spread rapidly, makes B117 a threat that should be taken seriously,” said Dr. Robert Challen, a researcher at the University of Exeter who led the study.
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