The British variant of the Coronavirus is 30% contagious. That’s what Queen Boyles, a health economist and epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, said in The Morning on Radio 1. So far it has been said that the British variant could be up to 70% contagious. Research also shows that most infections occur in children.
So far, numbers have circulated stating that the British variant of the coronavirus is said to be 30 to 70% contagious. Research in the UK is now showing that it lies just below that fork. “We did a large study in the UK. We saw that the British variant is growing 6% faster per day than other variants that already exist. If you take into account the amount of time between successive infections, you will have 30% out,” said Quinn Boyles, a health economist and epidemiologist at the University of Oxford. , In The Morning on Radio 1, “It’s more contagious than the current variants.”
More stringent procedures
“The infection may be less than initially thought, but it is still a lot,” Boyles said. He warns of the possible consequences. For example, the British variant also stayed under the waterline in the UK for a while. But after a few weeks, the more contagious type threatens to cause more deaths.
Belgium has the advantage of informing in a timely manner the dangers of the British alternative. “In England, a new variant was not known to exist. Belgium can now closely monitor what the new variable does. If it does increase, as in the Netherlands, more stringent measures are needed.”
Children are often infected
Pouwels also notes that children often become infected and infect each other. “This type grows as quickly in children as it does in the elderly,” he said. “It is true that – just like other variants found in England – children are often infected in the absolute sense.” “This means that most infections occur in children. More than the elderly. The elderly are the least affected at the moment, but this is also the case for other variants.”
According to Bowles, it is often the children who introduce the virus into the family. “This way the virus can spread further. In England, this effect was reinforced because we had a strict lockdown in the beginning, but the schools were still open. Then the virus had a chance to really spread further.”
