Incidence Trends for SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Beta Variants, Finland, Spring 2021
Ravi Kant, Phuoc Truong Nguyen, Soile Blomqvist, Mert Erdin, Hussein Alburkat, Maija T. Suvanto, Fathiah Zakham, Veera Salminen, Viktor Olander, Minna Paloniemi, Leena Huhti, Sara Lehtinen, Bruno Luukinen, Hanna Jarva, Hannimari Kallio‐Kokko, Satu Kurkela, Maija Lappalainen, Hanna Liimatainen, Sari Hannula, Jani Halkilahti, Jonna Ikonen, Niina Ikonen, Otto Helve, Marianne Gunell, Tytti Vuorinen, Ilya Plyusnin, Erika Lindh, Pekka Ellonen, Tarja Sironen, Carita Savolainen‐Kopra, Teemu Smura, Olli Vapalahti
Abstract
S everal new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have emerged globally, most notably variants of concern Alpha (B.1.1.7) (1), Beta (B1.351) (2), Gamma (P.1) (3), and most recently, Delta (B.1.617.2). Each variant is thought to pose an increased public health risk compared with the earlier wild-type strains that were circulating in 2020 because of >1 epidemiologic characteristics, such as higher transmissibility (4), greater immune escape properties toward antibodies from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (5), lower response to current vaccines (6), or more severe outcomes or increased mortality rates (7). Detecting and monitoring these novel variants is essential in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance.