The emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants is a challenge to the control of this pandemic. It is therefore important to collect and to analyze data related to the infection caused by different variants. We have obtained more than 3,700 COVID-19 patients between April 2020 and March 2021 from Tokat, Turkey (roughly 3,100 outpatients and close to 600 inpatients) where about 30% were infected with Alpha variant (B.1.1.7). Descriptive statistics was used to characterize different subgroups. Both logistic regression and cause-specific Cox survival analysis of competing-risk was run on inpatients, to examine the impact of Alpha variant on hospitalization, on mortality and on other factors. We observed that the Alpha variant is over-represented in inpatients than outpatients so infection by Alpha variant increases the chance for hospitalization. The impact of Alpha variant on mortality seems to depend on the patient's age. For patients under age of 70, the case-fatality-rate was 0.84% (5.3%) for patients without (with) Alpha variant (Fisher's test P-value = 2.4 × 10-10). For patients above age of 70, the trend is opposite: the case-fatality-rate is 31.5% (13.6%) for patients without (with) Alpha variant (Fisher's test P-value = 0.0016). The two opposite trends would cancel each other, making other analyses such as cause-specific Cox regression and logistic regression non-significant. The Alpha variant increases the risk for hospitalization, increases the case-fatality-rate for lower age group, and decreases the case-fatality-rate for the upper age group. If the increase of case-fatality-rate in not the most senior group holds true, it should provide useful information for a vaccination planning to counter the impact of Alpha variants.

中文翻译：

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SARS-CoV-2 的 Alpha 变体 (B.1.1.7) 增加了 70 岁以下患者的死亡率和总体住院风险。

新的 SARS-CoV-2 变种的出现对控制这种大流行构成了挑战。因此，收集和分析与由不同变体引起的感染相关的数据非常重要。2020 年 4 月至 2021 年 3 月期间，我们从土耳其托卡特（约 3,100 名门诊患者和近 600 名住院患者）获得了 3,700 多名 COVID-19 患者，其中约 30% 感染了 Alpha 变体（B.1.1.7）。描述性统计用于表征不同的亚组。对住院患者进行逻辑回归和竞争风险的特定原因 Cox 生存分析，以检查 Alpha 变异对住院、死亡率和其他因素的影响。我们观察到 Alpha 变体在住院患者中的比例高于门诊患者，因此 Alpha 变体感染增加了住院的机会。Alpha 变异对死亡率的影响似乎取决于患者的年龄。对于 70 岁以下的患者，没有（有）Alpha 变异的患者的病死率为 0.84%（5.3%）（Fisher 检验 P 值 = 2.4 × 10-10）。对于 70 岁以上的患者，趋势相反：没有（有）Alpha 变异的患者的病死率为 31.5%（13.6%）（Fisher 检验 P 值 = 0.0016）。这两种相反的趋势会相互抵消，从而使其他分析（例如特定原因的 Cox 回归和逻辑回归）变得不显着。Alpha 变体增加了住院风险，增加了较低年龄组的病死率，并降低了较高年龄组的病死率。如果不是最高级组的病死率增加是真的，