Risk of hospitalisations is greater in Delta variant: Study

The Delta variant has been increasing the number of Covid cases in almost all countries. This new variant has brought worse death tolls and more severe infections.

Now, a group of researchers have found out that the Delta variant can double the risk of Covid hospitalisations, when compared to the Alpha variant.

Also dubbed as the 'variant of concern', the Delta variant was first identified by Indian scientists and has already spread across the world. This variant has resulted in surges in several countries and experts have warned people to practice caution against this specific variant.

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Experts have warned that the Delta variant can put people in hospital for a long period of time and leave severe impact on Covid patients, especially on those who have not been vaccinated.

Scientists gathered data from 43,338 Covid cases that happened between March 28 and May 23, 2021 in the UK. Out of these, nearly 1.8 per cent of the cases had been fully vaccinated, 24 per cent of patients had received the first dose and 74 per cent were unvaccinated.

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The data suggested that nearly one in 50 patients were admitted in hospital, of which 2.3 per cent were Delta cases as opposed to 2.2 per cent of Alpha cases. Experts then studied the data by accounting several other factors such as age, ethnicity, vaccination and more, and found out that the risk of ending up in hospital due to Covid was far higher in the Delta variant cases.

"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," said Dr Gavin Dabrera, one of the study’s lead authors and a consultant epidemiologist for Public Health England. "We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta and as this variant accounts for more than 98% 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."