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The corona variant B.1.1.7 brings an estimated 64 percent higher risk for hospital stays, scientists from the center of the Danish health service SSI found out in a study.
While the proportion of people infected with B.1.1.7 was only four percent of all cases in Denmark at the beginning of January, it was already 45 percent in mid-February.
B.1.1.7 has now been detected in more than 60 percent of all samples.
The proportion of severe cases was higher among those infected with the mutation.
For the study, which has not yet been published in a specialist magazine, the researchers considered a total of 35,887 people who tested positive for Corona between January 1 and February 6.
“We do not know the explanation why B.1.1.7 increases the risk of hospitalization.
However, our numbers point in the same direction as several other studies from the UK showing that B.1.1.7 may cause more serious disease, ”says Tyra Grove Krause, SSI's technical director.
However, corona disease "in the vast majority of cases" is mild, the scientist emphasizes.
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