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U.K. Covid Variant Could Be 30% More Lethal
Posted
January 22, 2021
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January 22, 2021
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1:08Now PlayingThe U.K.’s new strain of coronavirus may be more deadly than first thought, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, as he warned again that the country faces a long wait before it can emerge from lockdown.
Speaking at a news conference Friday in London, the premier said new evidence had led the government to revise its initial view that the variant was more contagious but not more dangerous. It may be 30% more deadly than the original strain - or more, a government analysis found.
“In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant – the variant that was first identified in London and the South East – may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson said from 10 Downing Street, flanked by his top medical advisers.
The government said that on average, for 1,000 men in their 60s, 13 to 14 would die if they contracted the new variant, compared to 10 for the initial strain.
The premier’s warning comes as Britain grapples with the highest death toll in Europe and battles to recover from the economic wreckage of its deepest recession in more than 300 years.
There was a glimmer of light for the U.K. in government data on Friday suggesting that the second wave of the pandemic had passed its peak.
But Johnson and his scientific advisers were clear that the rates of hospitalizations, deaths and infections remain far too high and will not allow the restrictions that have shuttered businesses to be lifted any time soon.
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