Risk of hospitalisation 64% higher with British coronavirus variant, Danish study shows
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A woman walks past a mural of a young woman wearing a face mask in Madrid on Feb 24, 2021.
PHOTO: AFP
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COPENHAGEN (REUTERS) - A Danish study has found that people infected with a more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain have a higher risk of being hospitalised, the country's Serum Institute said on Wednesday (Feb 24).
Out of 2,155 people infected with the variant codenamed B117 in the institute's study, 128 were hospitalised, a rate 64 per cent higher than people infected with other variants, it said.
The result is consistent with a similar study in Britain earlier this month, the institute said in a statement.
The B117 variant last week became dominant in Denmark, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all new infections, up from less than 5 per cent at the beginning of the year.
Denmark is a front-runner in genome sequencing being used to analyse the genetic material of the coronavirus to determine variants.
