LONDON – Nagbabala ang mga opisyal ng United Kingdom na posibleng mas nakakamatay ang bagong variant ng COVID-19 na pumutok mula sa kanilang bansa.
“We’ve been informed that in addition to spreading more quickly… there is some evidence that the new variant… may be more associated with a higher degree of mortality,” ani Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Ayon kay UK chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, may mga ebidensya nang nagpapakita na maaaring mataas na rin ang tsansa na mamatay ang isang tao, lalo na mga may edad 60-years old pataas na tinamaan ng tinaguriang UK variant.
Halimbawa, kung dati ay 10 lang ang namamatay mula sa 1,000 senior citizen na tinamaan ng normal variant ng COVID-19 virus, ay maaaring umakyat sa 13 hanggang 14 ang bilang ng mamatay dahil sa bagong variant.
“If you took… a man in their 60s, the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die with the virus. With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” ani Vallance.
“I want to stress that there’s a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it, but it obviously is a concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as an increase in transmissibility.”
Nilinaw naman ni Johnson na sa ngayon nakikita pa rin ng mga eksperto na epektibo ang mga bakuna laban sa bagong variant ng COVID-19 virus.
“Both the vaccines we’re currently using remain effective both against the old variant and this new variant.”
Umaabot na sa 3.54-million ang coronavirus cases sa Britanya, kung saan higit 94,500 na ang namatay.
Dito sa Pilipinas, 17 indibidwal na ang tinamaan ng UK variant, na sinasabing mas nakakahawa kumpara sa unang pumutok na variant ng sakit. (report from BBC and CNN)
