The emergence of new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 – including one in the UK that British officials say could be more deadly than previous versions – signals a future in which health officials are trapped in a battle of cat and mouse with a pathogen that changes shape.
The faster-spreading coronavirus strains that researchers fear can also make people sicker or make vaccines less effective, threaten to extend blockages and lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, epidemiologists warn. But, they said, that does not mean that contagion cannot be contained.
“We are living in a world where the coronavirus is so prevalent and mutates rapidly that new variants will emerge,” said Anthony Harnden, a doctor who advises the UK government, to Sky News. “We may very well be in a situation where we will end up having to have an annual coronavirus vaccine” to deal with emerging strains.
As the new variant in the UK has spread across the country, hospitals are under more pressure than in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, and the national death toll from Covid-19 is expected to exceed 100,000 in the coming days. But in the week ending on Sunday, new daily cases dropped 22% from the previous seven days.
UK health secretary Matt Hancock said this was due to national restrictions in place since the beginning of the year. But in a television interview, Hancock warned, “We have a long, long, long way” before cases were low enough that restrictions were lifted.