Hospitalization risk 64 higher with UK COVID-19 variant: Study

A Danish study has found that people infected with a more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain have a higher risk of being hospitalized, the country's Serum Institute said on Wednesday.

Out of 2,155 people infected with the variant codenamed B117 in the institute's study, 128 were hospitalized, a rate 64% higher than people infected with other variants, it said.

The result is consistent with a similar study in Britain earlier this month, the institute said in a statement.

The B117 variant last week became dominant in Denmark, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all new infections, up from less than 5% at the beginning of the year.

It was also previously reported that the U.K. variant could more easily infect children.

Denmark is a front-runner in genome sequencing being used to analyze the genetic material of the coronavirus to determine variants.