Coronavirus: Delta Covid strain increases risk of admission to hospital, officials say

The Covid variant called Delta appears twice as likely to lead to hospital admission, health officials reveal.

Patients arrive in ambulances at the Royal London Hospital. A new Public Health England report shows increasing Covid-19 cases nationally in the UK, with the highest rates in those aged 10 to 19, at 72.3 per 100,000 population. Picture: Getty Images

An Indian COVID-19 variant known as Delta is dominant in the UK and appears twice as likely to lead to hospital admission as the Kent, or Alpha, strain identified in Britain about six months ago, the Health Department agency Public Health England has said.

Officials have urged people to “exercise caution” in the face of rising numbers.

Cases of the variant in Britain have increased by 5472 in the last week to 12,431 and it represented 73 per cent of all sequenced cases.

UK scientists believe the variant first seen in India now known as Delta has overtaken the Alpha variant, the BBC reports.

Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said: “With this variant now dominant across the UK, it remains vital that we continue to exercise caution, particularly while we learn more about transmission and health impacts.”

Government figures on Thursday showed 5274 new cases of COVID-19 in Britain, with the seven-day average up 39 per cent. There were 18 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, with the seven-day average down 5 per cent.

A PHE report showed that after taking into account factors such as age, ethnicity and vaccination status, people who tested positive for the Indian variant were at 161 per cent higher risk of needing hospital treatment within 14 days.

They were 67 per cent more likely to attend Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments or be admitted to hospital. Officials said more data was needed to boost confidence in the apparent finding of increased severity of illness.

Meaghan Kall, a PHE epidemiologist, said many cases of the Indian variant were relatively recent “so many people have not yet had time to be hospitalised and die, if they’re going to. This may explain why we aren’t yet seeing [this] reflected in national admission and death figures.”

A separate study showed levels of antibodies against the strain in people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were a fifth of antibodies against the original strain, on which vaccines are based.

A research letter published in The Lancet, from the Francis Crick Institute and UCLH Biomedical Research Centre in London, also showed antibodies becoming lower with increasing age, and declining over time.

The researchers said their findings offered “additional evidence in support of plans to deliver a vaccination boost to vulnerable people in the [northern] autumn” and of plans to bring forward second doses.

The findings do not translate directly into how effective the vaccine is against the variant, because it is not yet known how large an antibody response is needed to fight off the virus.

The PHE report showed that only 5 per cent of 137 people admitted to hospital with the variant after an A&E visit were fully vaccinated.

It also showed an increasing number of outbreaks in schools caused by the variant, making up about half of the most recent week’s figures.

Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen remained the most affected areas.

A separate PHE report showed increasing COVID-19 cases nationally, with the highest rates in those aged 10 to 19, at 72.3 per 100,000 population.

The Times