A health worker takes a swab sample to test for COVID-19 at drive-through COVID-19 testing facility at GMDC ground in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday.
The UK variant of the Coronavirus does not cause serious illness and is not death threatening, according to a new study published by The Lancet Infectious Diseases. However, the study mentions the new variant B117 is more contagious than the original strain of Covid19.
It first emerged in England in September 2020, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is now the most common strain in the US.
For the study, the team collected samples from patients at the University College London Hospital and the North Middlesex University Hospital between November 9 to December 20, 2020.
Of the 341 patients, 58 per cent were positive for the B117 variant. The other 42 per cent were infected with a different strain, the report said.
Comparing the severity of symptoms between the two groups, the team found that patients who tested positive for the B117 variant also reportedly had higher "viral loads," or greater amounts of the virus in their bodies, the report said.
(With IANS inputs)
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