UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a coronavirus (COVID-19) press conference on Downing Street on January 15, 2021 in London, England.
Dominic Lipinski | Getty Images
There is “some evidence” that a new variant of Covid first identified in the UK may be more deadly than the original strain, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.
“We were told today that in addition to spreading faster, it now also appears that there is some evidence that the new variant – the variant that was first discovered in London and the south-east (of England) – may be associated with a greater degree of mortality, “Johnson said at a news conference.
He added that all the evidence suggests that the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford University, both currently in use in the UK, remain effective against old and new variants of the virus.
The evidence is still at a preliminary stage and is being evaluated by the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group, which advises the British government.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7., Has an exceptionally high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.
Scientists first detected this mutation in September. The worrying variant has already been detected in at least 44 countries, including the USA, which have reported their presence in 12 states.
Last week, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the modeled trajectory of the variant in the United States “exhibits rapid growth in early 2021, becoming the predominant variant in March.”