COVID-19 Delta variant poses twice the risk of hospitalization as Alpha, study finds

People who are infected with the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant are twice as likely to be hospitalized compared to those infected with the Alpha variant, according to a new British study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Friday.

The study compared data of over 43,000 COVID-19 cases of mostly unvaccinated people in England, and highlighted the disparity in the risk of hospitalization between Delta and Alpha infected people.

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“Patients with COVID-19 who are infected with the Delta variant have approximately two times the risk of hospital admission compared with patients with the Alpha variant,” the study said.

“Results suggest that outbreaks of the Delta variant in unvaccinated populations might lead to a greater burden on health-care services than the Alpha variant,” it added.

Scientists remain focused on the Delta variant as they consider it the most worrisome. It infects a higher proportion of vaccinated people compared to other variants.

The variant also seems to be mutating further, with reports emerging of the “Delta Plus” variant, sub-lineage that carries an additional mutation that has been shown to evade immune protection.

With Reuters

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