British variant of Covid-19 not as severe as feared

A new high contagious variant of covid-19 was identified in Britain. This variant does not cause more severe disease in patient as per the study readings. The medical journal of London named ‘The Lancet infectious Diseases’ on Monday, which published about this variant in their report. According to the United States, the Centers for Disease Control a strain, known as B.1.1.7, was identified in Britain late last year, and has become the most common strain in the United States. A group of 496 Covid-Patients was admitted last year in British hospital in November and December, which had the infection of the B.1.17 variant and also other variants. The researchers did a deep study on the variant found in Britain and found no severe disease, death or other clinical outcomes in patients with B.1.1.7, which has been considered asmore transmissible.

The researchers said in the study that their data which is within the context and has a real-world study limitation, provide reassurance initially regarding the severity in patients with B.1.1.7, that have been hospitalized and are not markedly different. The Lancet Public Health medical journal published that since there was no apparent increase in reinfection rate, when compared to non-UK variants, the vaccines were likely to be effective against the British variant. The British variant was said to be 40%-70% more transmissible than the previously dominant variants. Also, it was confirmed with a study that the B.1.1.7 was more transmissible. B.1.1.7 variant was said to be considerably more contagious than the original virus. Researchers estimates suggest that B.1.1.7 infection has chances of 55 percent greater mortality compared to other SARS-CoV-2 variants over this time period. B.1.1.7 has spread rapidly around the globe and almost one-third of all cases in the United States are said to got infected with the virus.

The mortality rates for 54,906 matched pairs of patients who were tested positive for older variants of the virus or B.1.1.7 in community testing, which were compared by a scientist. It was analyzed that the people suffering from the B.1.1.7 infection were between 32–104% more likely to die from the infection within 28 days of a positive test. Leading to issuance of the following report by Public Health England, B.1.1.7 has spread quickly beyond southeastern England. B.1.1.7 had been reported in 52 countries, including the United States till the date Jan. 15, 2021. All these severity with respect to the B.1.1.7 has led the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose stricter lockdown measures, and also impose ban on travel for the U.K. passengers have been issued by multiple countries.

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