UK coronavirus variant associated with higher viral loadsThe highly infectious COVID-19 coronavirus variant that has been circulating in Britain is linked to higher loads of the virus in the blood, according to a research report published on medRxiv on Sunday ahead of peer review. Around 35% of patients infected by the variant form had very high levels of the virus in their samples, compared to 10% of patients without the variant, study leader Michael Kidd of Public Health England and Birmingham University told Reuters. Higher viral loads have been linked with worse COVID-19 outcomes. If confirmed, he hopes scientists will investigate how this particular variant manages to make more copies of itself in infected patients. An earlier study linked a cluster of genes inherited from Neanderthals to higher risks of hospitalization from COVID-19.

Source: bd News24 December 29, 2020 00:22 UTC