LONDON – The new strain of coronavirus identified in Britain could be not only more transmissible but also more deadly, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.
“It also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant… may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” he said at a Downing Street news conference.
Chief government scientist Patrick Vallance said the new variant could be around 30 percent more deadly, although he stressed that only sparse data was available.
He said that for a 60-year-old man, around 10 in 1,000 would be expected to die after catching the original strain.
But that rises to “13 or 14” for the new strain.
“You will see that across the different age groups as well, a similar sort of relative increase in the risk,” he added. (AFP)
