The emergence of new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 – including one in the UK that British officials say may be more deadly than previous versions – hints at a future where health authorities are involved in a cat-and-mouse battle with a shape-shifting pathogen.
Faster spread of coronavirus strains that researchers fear could also make people sicker or make vaccines less effective threatens to prolong lockdowns and lead to more hospitalizations and deaths, epidemiologists warn. But, they said, it doesn’t mean contamination cannot be contained.
“We live in a world where the coronavirus is so widespread and rapidly mutating that new variants will emerge,” Anthony Harnden, a doctor advising the UK government, told Sky News. “We may be in a situation where we will eventually need an annual coronavirus vaccine” to deal with emerging tensions.
As the new variant in the UK has spread across the country, hospitals have been under more pressure than during the first wave of the spring pandemic, and the national death toll from Covid-19 is expected to rise in the coming days. Exceed 100,000. But in the week ending Sunday, the new daily cases were 22% lower than the previous seven days.
Matt Hancock, the UK’s health secretary, said this was due to national restrictions in place since the beginning of the year. But in a television interview, Mr. Hancock: “We’ve got a long, long, long road” before the cases would get low enough to lift the restrictions.