BARCELONA – It was a bad ending to a bad COVID week in Europe. On Friday night, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that researchers had found “some evidence” that the recently discovered British variant of the coronavirus, which was already known to be more contagious than the original strain and generated an increase alarming number of cases and a block in that country, “may be associated with a higher degree of mortality”. 30 percent higher mortality, added his government’s leading scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, in revealing the assessment of the country’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group. He added that there is still “a lot of uncertainty” about how lethal the variant is.
In response to the news, Yahoo News Medical Contributor, Dr. Kavita Patel, explained that “10 different model studies show that the [U.K.] variant has a higher risk of death compared to variants outside the UK ”, but stressed that“ these are studies and models, not necessarily clinical trials ”. She added that if the UK strain is indeed more deadly, it becomes “more urgent to get vaccines out as soon as possible” and that epidemiologists need to understand more clearly “the spread of the variant here in the US”
The variant, which is believed to be 70% more transmissible than the strain prevalent in the United States, has been identified in at least 20 states among Americans with no recent history of travel abroad, indicating that it is spreading rapidly. The CDC says it may become the dominant strain in the United States in March.
The UK report hit Spain particularly hard, as new cases have increased since the end of the holiday season, with 44,357 new cases breaking all previous daily records. Only the USA and Brazil are reporting a greater number of new cases. At least 5% of cases in this Spanish “third wave” are believed to be the United Kingdom variant, which the Spanish government’s leading scientific adviser to COVID, Fernando Simón, believes will be the dominant strain in Spain in a few weeks.
The dramatic increase was initially considered a reflection of Spain’s long holiday season, which runs from December 24 to January 6, during which some restrictions, such as curfew and travel between regions, were eased. However, with hospitalizations reaching new highs, epidemiologists have realized that the UK variant, which first appeared in Spain a month ago, was evident in increasing numbers and appears to be fueling the increase in cases, especially in the south of the country. .
So far, the Spanish national government – which mandated the use of masks in all public places, including on the streets, reduced restaurant opening hours and imposed a curfew at 10pm across the country in October – is denying orders of Spain’s regions to set the curfew to 8 pm or to impose a total blockade.
In fact, in lands where tourism is an economic engine, Spanish authorities recently announced that they expect Spain’s tourism to be back on track in late summer, when the prime minister believes that at least 70 percent of Spaniards will have vaccinated, a process that started last month.
Patel emphasized that “despite this worrying news, we still believe that vaccines can work against these variants and be incredibly important, especially for those at high risk of dying from COVID.” But because vaccines may need to be adjusted to deal with the British and other new variants, Americans “need to triple in our public health efforts”, like wearing masks and social detachment.
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