UK variant of coronavirus linked to significantly higher death rate

London, Mar 11 (PTI):
The highly infectious variant of the novel coronavirus which swept across the UK last year before spreading worldwide, could be 30 to 100 per cent deadlier than previous versions of the virus, according to a new study.
The research, published in the British Medical Journal, noted that this variant, B.1.1.7, is linked to a significantly higher mortality rate amongst adults diagnosed in the community compared to previously circulating strains.
In the study, epidemiologists from the Universities of Exeter and Bristol in the UK, compared death rates among people infected with the new variant and those infected with other strains.
They found that the new variant led to 227 deaths in a sample of 54,906 patients compared to 141 amongst the same number of closely matched patients who had the previous strains. “In the community, death from COVID-19 is still a rare event, but the B.1.1.7 variant raises the risk.