The emergence of new variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 – including one in the UK that British officials say could be more deadly than earlier versions – indicates a future in which health authorities are locked 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, and that eliminates threats, leading to more hospitalizations and deaths, epidemiologists warn. But, they said, that does not mean the infection cannot be curtailed.
“We live in a world where coronavirus is so prevalent and mutating rapidly that new variants are about to appear,” Anthony Harnden, a doctor advising the British government, told Sky News. “We could very well be in a situation where we finally have to have an annual coronavirus vaccine” to deal with emerging strains.
As the new variant spread across the country across the UK, hospitals were under more stress than in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, and the national Covid-19 death toll is expected to exceed 100,000 in the coming days. But in the week ending Sunday, new daily cases declined by 22% from the previous seven days.
Matt Hancock, the UK’s health secretary, said it was due to national restrictions that have been in place since the beginning of the year. But in a television interview, Mr. Hancock warns: ‘We are a long, long, long road’ before business would be low enough to lift restrictions.