The United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has warned that the COVID-19 variant is more deadly than original virus.
At the Downing Street news conference on Friday, Boris Johnson said: “There is some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.”
First identified in Kent, the variant is thought to be more than 70% more transmissible.
England and Scotland announced new restrictions on 4 January to stem a surge in coronavirus fuelled by the variant, which has led to record numbers of daily deaths and infections this month.
The government said a further 1,401 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19 as of Friday, bringing the UK total to 95,981.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where COVID-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 112,000 deaths involving the virus in the UK.
The government also said that as of 9 am on Friday, there had been a further 40,261 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.
It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 3,583,907.
Latest estimates from the Department of Health (DoH) suggest the number of new COVID-19 infections was shrinking by between 1% and 4% a day.
And the Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has said the coronavirus R number in the UK has fallen sharply since last week.
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The R, which refers to the number of people that an infected person will pass COVID-19 on to, is between 0.8 and 1 across the UK.
However, the Office for National Statistics estimated that the prevalence overall remained high, with about one in 55 people having the virus.
“Cases remain dangerously high and we must remain vigilant to keep this virus under control,” a spokesman for the DoH said.
“It is essential that everyone continues to stay at home, whether they have had the vaccine or not.”
Sky News
