Covid-19 variant identified in India may increase risk of hospitalization, UK officials say
CNN
The B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant that was first identified in India is now believed to be dominant in the United Kingdom, Public Health England (PHE) said Thursday, adding that early evidence suggests it could cause an increased risk of hospitalization in comparison to the strain that was first detected in England.
While PHE cautioned that more data is needed, its early findings showed that the B.1.617.2 or "Delta" variant was more likely to cause serious illness than the B.1.1.7 or "Alpha" variant, which had been dominant in the UK since it was first detected in southeast England last fall. An analysis of 38,805 sequenced cases in England showed that the Delta variant carried 2.61 times the risk of hospitalization within 14 days compared with the Alpha variant, when variables such as age, sex, ethnicity and vaccination status were taken into consideration.
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