“We were told that, in addition to spreading faster … there is some evidence that the new variant … may be more associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson told a news conference on Friday.
“Both vaccines we are currently using remain effective against both the old and the new variant,” he added.
Vallance said that patients hospitalized with the new variant do not appear to have a higher risk of dying compared to those hospitalized with the original form of the virus.
“However, when the data is analyzed in terms of … anyone with a positive test, there is evidence that there is a greater risk for those who have the new variant compared to the old [one.]”
Vallance added that the evidence is not yet strong and that the data remains uncertain.
“If you caught … a man in his 60s, the average risk is that, for 1,000 infected people, about 10 will unfortunately die from the virus. With the new variant, for 1,000 infected people, about 13 or 14 people can be expected to die, “he said on Friday.
Vallance added: “This is the type of change for this type of age group, an increase from 10 to 13 or 14 in 1,000 and you will see that, in the different age groups, a similar type of relative increase in risk.”
The new variant was first detected in southeastern England and is believed to be 30 to 70% more transmissible than the previous ones, Vallance said.
The UK recorded an additional 1,401 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, according to government data on Friday – up from the daily increase of 1,290 deaths on Thursday.
The total number of people who died in the country in 28 days after a positive test is now 95,981.
Vallance said on Friday that there is “growing evidence” that existing Covid-19 vaccines will work against the UK strain, but a cautionary note sounded about the variants detected in Brazil and South Africa.
“We are more concerned that they have certain characteristics, which means that they may be less susceptible to vaccines,” he said, although he added that the researchers need “more clinical information” about the variants.
England’s medical director Chris Whitty said on Friday that there were “definite signs of improvement” both in the number of people infected with coronavirus in England and in hospital admission data.
The number of new Covid-19 infections recorded in the UK in the past 24 hours has also increased from Thursday. A total of 40,261 additional cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of cases recorded in the UK since the pandemic began to 3,583,907.
Public Health England continues to ask citizens to follow government guidelines, warning once again on Friday that “not everyone with coronavirus has symptoms” and asking people to stay home.
The United Kingdom remains under strict blockade.