Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Nov;17(11):e13204.
doi: 10.1111/irv.13204.

Descriptive epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant cases in England, December 2020 to June 2022

Mary A Sinnathamby  1 , Asad Zaidi  1 , Katherine A Twohig  1 , Shirin Aliabadi  1 , Nurin Abdul Aziz  1 , Natalie Groves  2 , Eileen Gallagher  2 , Simon Thelwall  1 , Gavin Dabrera  1
Affiliations

Descriptive epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant cases in England, December 2020 to June 2022

Mary A Sinnathamby et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Beta (B.1.351) variant in November 2020 raised concerns of increased transmissibility and severity. We describe the epidemiology of 949 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant cases in England, identified between December 2020 and June 2022. Most cases were detected in the first 3 months. A total of 10 deaths (1.1%; 10/949) were identified among all cases and of those with travel information, 38 (4.9%; 38/781) cases with hospital admissions within 14 days of a positive test being detected. 52.9% (413/781) cases were imported. This study reinforces the importance of monitoring of travel-associated cases to inform public health response and reduce transmissibility of new variants.

Keywords: B.1.351; England; SARS-CoV-2 Beta; second generation surveillance system; travel; whole genome sequencing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Dabrera reports the predecessor of the organisation he works for, Public Health England (PHE), received an unrestricted grant from GSK to undertake a study on the outcome of patients who received parenteral zanamavir. The funder received data and interim reports from PHE but did not influence analysis and reporting of the study. I Gavin Dabrera had no involvement in the GSK‐funded study on parenteral zanamavir. Furthermore, the currently submitted work was part of the public health response activities to COVID‐19 and had no relationship to GSK nor the study on parenteral zanamavir. No conflicts of interest declared for all other authors.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Epidemic curve of SARS‐CoV‐2 Beta (B.1.351) cases (n = 949) by (A) travel status and (B) regions of travel for imported cases (n = 413) and imposed restrictions in England.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tegally H, Wilkinson E, Giovanetti M, et al. Detection of a SARS‐CoV‐2 variant of concern in South Africa. Nature. 2021;592(7854):438‐459. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03402-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) . Tracking SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. https://www.who.int/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants
    1. Madhi SA, Baillie V, Cutland CL, et al. Efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV‐19 COVID‐19 vaccine against the B.1.351 variant. N Engl J Med. 2021;384(20):1885‐1898. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2102214 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abu‐Raddad LJ, Chemaitelly H, Ayoub HH, et al. Severity, criticality, and fatality of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) Beta variant. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;75(1):e1188‐e1119. doi:10.1093/cid/ciab909 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abu‐Raddad LJ, Butt AA. Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 Covid‐19 vaccine against the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants. N Engl J Med. 2021;385(2):187‐189. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2104974 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Supplementary concepts