March 17, 2021

Increased Mortality in Community-Tested Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B.1.1.7

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): public health, variants

• The risk of death associated with the presence of the B.1.1.7 variant was 55% higher than previous strains, according to an analysis from the UK. The authors used S gene target failure (SGTF) to define B.1.1.7 and performed analysis of SARS-CoV-2 community tests (n=2,245,263 positive results) and COVID-19 deaths (n=17,452) in England from September 1, 2020 to February 14, 2021. After adjusting for several factors including age, sex, and care home residence, the risk death associated with SGTF was 55% higher than for non-B.1.1.7 variants. When the authors corrected for SGTF misclassification or missingness, the estimated risk of death was 61% higher among those with B.1.1.7. [EDITORIAL NOTE: A pre-print related to this manuscript was summarized on February 4, 2020]

Davies et al. (Mar 15, 2021). Increased Mortality in Community-Tested Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B.1.1.7. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03426-1