Covid Delta variant poses twice the risk of hospitalisation – study

People who get the Delta variant of the coronavirus are twice as likely to be hospitalised as those who were infected by the Alpha variant which was first detected in England last year, a study showed on Friday.

The study, based on more than 43,000 Covid-19 cases of mostly unvaccinated people in England, compared the risk of hospitalisation for people infected with Delta, which was first detected in India, with people who caught Alpha.

“Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any Delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an Alpha epidemic,” Anne Presanis, one of the study’s lead authors and a University of Cambridge statistician, said.

Dr Gavin Dabrera, one of the study’s lead authors and a consultant epidemiologist at the National Infection Service, Public Health England, said: “This study confirms previous findings that people infected with Delta are significantly more likely to require hospitalisation than those with Alpha, although most cases included in the analysis were unvaccinated.

“We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta and as this variant accounts for over 98 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the UK, it is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible.

The study was based on cases between March and May during the early stages of Britain’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, so it was not able to assess the extra risk of hospital admission for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people.