Thread by @kakape

"Although there is no information that infections with these strains are more severe, due to increased transmissibility the impact of #COVID19 disease in terms of hospitalisations and deaths is assessed as high."

@ECDC_EU risk assessment of new variants:
ecdc.europa.eu/en/publication…

@ECDC_EU "The probability of increased circulation of any SARS-CoV-2 strains and this placing greater pressure on health systems in the coming weeks is considered to be high due to the festive season and, higher still, in countries where the new variants are established."

@ECDC_EU "The UK has demonstrated that their sequencing programme is able to detect emerging variants. Ideally, Member States should aim for a similar timeliness and fraction of samples sequenced, although this will depend on the availability of resources."

@ECDC_EU The document is well worth a read if you are looking for a one-stop read with all the information on what we currently know about spread etc. of these variants with some good background info on sequencing capacity etc. in Europe.

@ECDC_EU ECDC also confirms that in some ways we are back to an early 2020 scenario:
"For countries that have not already confirmed high levels of community transmission of a variant of concern, efforts to delay the spread should mirror those made during the earlier stage of the pandemic”