In a new study, researchers found that the highly infectious variant of COVID-19 discovered in Kent, which swept across the UK last year before spreading worldwide, is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous strains.
They found that the SARS-CoV-2 variant, B.1.1.7, is linked to a much higher death rate amongst adults diagnosed compared to previously circulating strains.
The research was conducted by a team at the Universities of Exeter and Bristol.
In the study, the team compared death rates among people infected with the new variant and those infected with other strains.
They showed that the new variant led to 227 deaths in a sample of 54906 patients—compared to 141 amongst the same number of closely matched patients who had the previous strains.
With the new variant already detected in more than 50 countries worldwide, the analysis provides crucial information to governments and health officials to help prevent its spread.
The team says in the community, death from COVID-19 is still a rare event, but the B.1.1.7 variant raises the risk.
Coupled with its ability to spread rapidly this makes B.1.1.7 a threat that should be taken seriously.
The Kent variant, first detected in the UK in September 2020, has been identified as being significantly quicker and easier to spread and was behind the introduction of new lockdown rules across the UK from January.
The study showed that the higher transmissibility of the Kent strain meant that more people who would have previously been considered low risk were hospitalized with the newer variant.
The team says SARS-CoV-2 appears able to mutate quickly, and there is a real concern that other variants will arise with resistance to rapidly rolled out vaccines.
Monitoring for new variants as they arise, measuring their characteristics and acting appropriately needs to be a key part of the public health response in the future.
One author of the study is Robert Challen.
The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
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