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NEW statement from chief medical officer Chris Whitty: “no current evidence” to suggest new variant causes greater mortality but “urgent work” is underway to confirm this
Whitty statement in full
As per my story from earlier, Sage are working round the clock on the new variant. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/huge-scientific-effort-underway-new-covid-variant-surge-in-cases-england-801128
Have seen some people saying the latest situation is being over-played by the government to get around the Xmas bubbles issue that they need people to stop mixing. It really isn’t. My information from the last 48 hours has largely come from data and scientists themselves
The new variant is hopefully not more deadly but one direct impact of more cases in SE England is more hospital admissions. At the very least that is correlation and needs to be taken seriously.
Eg hospital Covid inpatient graph for Medway in north Kent (compare now to April)
And the same graph for East Kent NHS Trust: (h/t @1nationtory for the screen grab and has been watching these figures like a hawk)
