Objective:

To describe the transmission and severity risk of the Alpha and Gamma variants concerning SARS-CoV-2 compared with other variants.

Materials and methods:

Narrative and rapid review conducted in PubMed up to May 10, 2021.

Results:

The search captured 262 articles, of which 15 studies were included. Four studies were included from the reference control. Six out of the 19 studies were gray literature. Most of the studies analyzed the variant of concern, Alpha, and only one for the Gamma variant. The variant of concern, Alpha, is consistent with a higher risk of transmission (between 35 and 89% higher risk), hospitalization (between 64 and 234% higher risk) and death (between 36 and 140% higher risk) compared to other variants. The Gamma variant reports a possible strong and positive correlation between positive proportions and deaths (Rho 0.71; p <0.01).

Conclusions:

There is more information regarding the variant of concern Alpha than Gamma. The variant of concern Alpha reports a higher risk of transmission, hospitalization, and death; but these results should be viewed with caution.