No proof of new variant causing more fatality, says UK study

Pedestrians walk past a bus stop with a government message about the coronavirus tier 4 restrictions urging people to stay home in London on December 29, 2020 (AFP)

PUNE: Findings from a new matched cohort study in the United Kingdom on the impact of the new coronavirus strain on human health should come as a relief for India.
The study, published by Public Health England, found “no statistically significant difference in hospitalisation, case fatality” between cases with the variant coronavirus strain and earlier cases.
A matched cohort study is an analysis that relies on comparing sets of individuals. From 2,693 variant cases, identified at the time of analysis, 1,769 cases (from September 20 to December 15) were matched against another 1,769 wild-type comparator cases.
Fewer new variant cases (16) were admitted to hospital compared to the wild-type comparator cases (26). Among the variant cases, 12 of 1,340 (0.89%) died within 28 days of their specimen date compared to 10 of 1,360 (0.73%) wild-type comparator cases.
A spokesperson for Public Health England told TOI, “There is no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease or higher mortality.”