Delta ‘twice as likely’ as Alpha to land people in hospital
The study suggests the Delta variant causes more severe illness, at least in the unvaccinated, researchers say
Patients with the Delta variant of SARS-Cov-2 are more than twice as likely to be hospitalised than those with the Alpha variant, according to findings from the UK.
Researchers analysed data from 43,338 COVID-19 cases in England between 29 March and 23 May this year, when both variants of concern were circulating in the community.
Of the 34,656 Alpha cases, 764 (2.2%) required hospital care within 14 days of testing positive for the virus, compared with 196 of the 8692 Delta cases (2.3%), data showed.
After adjustment for confounders — including age, ethnicity, deprivation and vaccination status — the researchers found the risk of hospital admission was 2.3-fold higher for those with the Delta variant compared with the Alpha variant.
