Covid-19: Hospitalisation risk 64 per cent higher with British variant
People infected with the more contagious British mutation of the coronavirus, first discovered in Kent, have a much higher risk of being hospitalised, according to a new study.
The data, published this evening by Denmark’s Serum Institute, which is part of the country’s Ministry of Health, monitored 2,155 people infected with the British variant. Of those, 128 ended up in hospital, which was 64 per cent higher than the rate of hospitalisation as a result of other Covid-19 mutations.
Scientists have estimated that the variant, which has been given the variant codename B117, replicates itself twice as fast as the strain that first emerged from Wuhan.
Some public health officials, including members from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, have predicted that the strain will become the dominant form in many countries, including the U.S.