A study published in The Lancet on Saturday has shown that the Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared to the Alpha variant.
According to the study, only 1.8 percent of the more than 43,000 Covid cases assessed in comparing the two variants were in patients who had been fully vaccinated. Three-quarters were completely unvaccinated, while 24 percent had only received one jab of a two-dose vaccine.
"The results from this study therefore primarily tell us about the risk of hospital admission for those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated," said co-lead author Anne Presanis, a Senior Statistician at the University of Cambridge's MRC Biostatistics Unit.
Researchers analysed healthcare data from 43,338 Covid-19 cases in England from March 29 to May 23 of this year, including vaccination status, emergency care, hospital admission and other patient information.
Just under 80 percent of the cases were identified as the Alpha variant, and the rest were Delta.
NEW: Delta variant doubles risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation compared to alpha variant, data from UK study confirms - most cases (98%) in the study were among unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated individuals @TheLancetInfDis https://t.co/JT7tRtWOIc
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) August 28, 2021
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Around one in 50 patients were admitted to hospital within 14 days of their first positive Covid-19 test.
After accounting for factors that are known to affect susceptibility to severe illness -- including age, ethnicity, and vaccination status -- the researchers found the risk of being admitted to hospital was more than doubled with the Delta variant.
China withholding critical information: Biden
President Joe Biden said on Friday that China was withholding "critical information" on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon -- but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.
The United States, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed 4.5 million lives, according to an unclassified summary of an eagerly awaited intelligence report.
"Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People's Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it," Biden said in a statement.
"To this day, the PRC continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to rise."
US intelligence has ruled out that the coronavirus was developed as a weapon, and most agencies assess with "low confidence" it was not genetically engineered.
But the community remains divided on the pathogen's origins, with four agencies and the National Intelligence Council judging in favour of natural exposure to an animal as the likely explanation, and one agency favouring the lab leak theory.
(AFP)
