New variantsThe B.1.1.7 variant that has become predominant in the UK and is expected to take over soon in the US has been estimated to be 30% to 70% more transmissible than the version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus we have come to know and heartily dislike.
Because of the magic of exponential growth, this can translate into a greater than 30%-to-70% increase in the number of cases in just a few weeks.What seems like only a moderately higher growth rate can bring many, many more cases in short order.
In the real world, as in the susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) models that epidemiologists use, the growth rate does at least slow over time as people become immune and change their behaviour to avoid the disease.
Read more on livemint.com