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A study in the United Kingdom showed that compared with the Alpha variant, people infected with COVID-19 from the Delta variant are approximately twice as likely to be hospitalized.
Compared to the Alpha variant, which has replaced the major global strain, the Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 doubles the risk of hospitalization. Researchers report in The Lancet Saturday.
Of the more than 43,000 COVID-19 cases evaluated when comparing these two variants, only 1.8% of patients were fully vaccinated patients.
Three-quarters of people were not vaccinated at all, and 24% received only two doses at a time.
“Therefore, the results of this study mainly tell us the risk of hospitalization for those who have not been vaccinated or partially vaccinated,” said co-lead author Anne Presanis, a senior statistician in the MRC Department of Biostatistics at the University of Cambridge.
Researchers analyzed the health care data of 43,338 COVID-19 cases in England between March 29 and May 23 this year, including vaccination status, emergency care, hospitalization, and other patient information.
All virus samples have undergone whole-genome sequencing, which is the most reliable way to confirm which mutation causes infection.
Slightly less than 80% of cases are identified as Alpha variants, and the rest are Delta.
Approximately one-fifth of patients are admitted to the hospital within 14 days after the first COVID-19 test is positive.
After considering factors known to affect susceptibility to serious diseases (including age, race, and vaccination status), the researchers found that the risk of admission to the Delta variant more than doubled.
‘Excellent protection’
The authors say that since these samples were collected, Delta has proliferated and now accounts for more than 98% of new COVID-19 cases in the UK.
Multiple studies have shown that full vaccination can prevent symptomatic infection and hospitalization of Alpha and Delta variants.
“We already know that vaccination can provide excellent protection for Delta,” said another lead author, Gavin Dabrera, an epidemiological consultant at the Public Health England National Infection Service.
“It is important that those who have not received two doses of the vaccine get it as soon as possible.”
An earlier study in Scotland also reported that Delta’s hospitalization risk is twice as high as Alpha, indicating that Delta can cause more serious illness.
The Delta variant was first reported in India in December 2020, and early studies found that its transmission rate was 50% higher than that of the Alpha variant first discovered in the UK in September last year.
Nearly 4.5 million people worldwide have died of COVID-19, but once the “excess death toll” during the pandemic is calculated, the final death toll may be even higher.
In some countries-and Some states in the U.S. – The hospitalization rate and mortality rate are the highest since the first case reported in early 2020.
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