More than 1000 deaths per day, up to 1,820 in a single day on Wednesday, a record… The health situation in the United Kingdom is not improving, although the number of daily cases (almost 38,000 Thursday) has been decreasing in recent days .
Blame it on the British variant?
“In addition to spreading faster, it also now appears that there is evidence (that this variant) may be linked to a higher degree of mortality,” Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, explained on Friday.
The “evidence” referred to by Boris Johnson actually comes from a mathematical analysis of the numbers of deaths with the original version of Covid-19 and that of the British variant, which appeared in London and southern England.
According to this study, the risk of mortality for men in their sixties, the risk of mortality with the variant would be 13 to 14 in 1000, against 10 in 1000 with the "classic" virus.
VIDEO. Covid-19: the British variant "associated with a higher degree of mortality", indicates Boris Johnson
"I would like to stress that there is a lot of uncertainty around these figures", however specified, during this same press conference, the scientific adviser of the government, Patrick Vallance.
The increase in the number of deaths could also be linked to "an increase in transmissibility", which has been well proven for the British variant.
A variant present in France
In December, as the British variant spread across England - forcing foreign countries to close their borders to British nationals, British officials said they had no evidence that the variant was deadlier than the original virus.
The British variant - which was first detected in October 2020 - is now present in at least sixty countries around the world.
The variant is also present in France since, according to Public Health France, 131 people had tested positive there on January 20, to which must be added 10 positive cases for the South African variant.
The National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) even estimates that the British variant should be dominant in France by mid-March.
Containment that works in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is the country most bereaved in Europe by the pandemic with nearly 96,000 dead.
The country has reconfigured for the third time in an attempt to stem this new wave of the virus.
Its effects seem to be being felt as the number of cases is decreasing and the reproduction rate of the virus is also down (between 0.8 and 1, compared to between 1.2 and 1.3 a week ago).
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A mass vaccination campaign was launched, and 5.4 million people received a first dose of vaccine, of which 400,000 were vaccinated in the last 24 hours, a record.