January 25, 2021

NERVTAG Note on B.1.1.7 Severity

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

Keywords (Tags): clinical characteristics, variants

[Report, not peer-reviewed] The UK New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Advisory Group (NERVTAG) states the B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2 variant has quickly become dominant in the UK, and it is a possibility that infection with this variant is associated with an increased risk of death compared to previous strains. NERVTAG cites evidence of increased case fatality from several independent UK studies of samples with s-gene target failure, and proxy for the B.1.1.7 variant. The COVID Clinical Information Network has not found evidence of increased hospital case fatality with this variant.

Horby et al. (Jan 18, 2021). NERVTAG Note on B.1.1.7 Severity. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nervtag-paper-on-covid-19-variant-of-concern-b117