Is the new strain of COVID-19 more contagious or dangerous?
Bottom Line: England’s locked down again and fears of COVID-19 are rising again as word of a new strain making its way around the world. That includes a recent diagnosis in Martin County. But just because something is new, is it necessarily worse? In the case of the newest strain of COVID-19, according to the CDC’s research and a new study the answer appears to be no.
According to new CDC research, more than half of all COVID infections in England the past two months have been this new strain. It’s just that it was more recently diagnosed as a mutated strain. In the study the summation statement regarding the new strain was this: Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant difference in hospitalization and 28-day case fatality between cases with the variant (VOC 201212/01) and wild-type comparator cases. So that’s good news. It might be a little different but there’s no evidence it’s more dangerous. What it does appear to be is more contagious. According to the same study the new strain is 56% more contagious than other known COVID strains. That’s a big jump. Already COVID-19 was 2.5 times more contagious than the traditional flu. This new strain appears to be 3.9 times more contagious than the flu. It helps explain the quick spike in new cases in countries like England and we may soon find it’s been one of the catalysts behind the recent spikes in the states as well.
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