display
London (AP) - The variant of the corona virus first discovered in Great Britain may be more deadly than the one that has prevailed so far.
There are “some indications” for this, said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a press conference in the government seat of Downing Street in London.
The mutation appeared in the southeastern county of Kent at the end of last year and quickly spread to London and parts of the country.
With viruses, random changes in the genetic material, called mutations, occur constantly.
Some give the pathogen advantages - for example by making it easier to transmit.
According to British experts, the variant that has appeared in Great Britain is 30 to 70 percent easier to transfer than the previous one.
display
Whether and how much more deadly the new variant is is still very uncertain, warned the government's scientific advisor Patrick Vallance on Friday.
If one assumes with the previous variant that ten out of 1000 people will die at the age of 60, be it around 13 or 14 deaths in the variant.
Experts in Great Britain do not assume that the protective effect of the vaccines used to date will be impaired by the native virus variant.
For two other mutations discovered in Brazil and South Africa, this is still unclear, said Vallance.
According to the government, 5.4 million people in the UK have already received a first dose of vaccine.
The UK is one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the pandemic.
Tens of thousands of new infections and most recently more than 1000 deaths are reported every day.
Almost 96,000 people in Great Britain died within 28 days of a positive corona test.
display
The hospitals are sometimes under heavy pressure.
According to Johnson, the number of Covid patients treated in clinics is now 78 percent higher than during the first wave of pandemics last spring.
The Prime Minister mainly blames the virus mutant for this.
For weeks there has been a lockdown with extensive exit and travel restrictions, schools and non-essential businesses are closed.
The measures are to be reviewed in mid-February.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210122-99-135609 / 2