- Most people will not be very ill with Covid.
- “And I think people have got to learn to frame those risks for themselves.”
- More on this story BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron: How worried should we be?
According to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), covid infections are still on the rise in the UK as reported by BBC.
End of Covid?
The data suggests about 1.7 million people were estimated to have Covid in the week ending 18 June.
Experts say two new fast-spreading subvariants of Omicron – called BA.4 and BA.5 – are likely to be driving new infections.
UKHSA officials expect more people to test positive in the next few weeks.
People can catch the newer variants even if they have had coronavirus recently.
Most people will not be very ill with Covid.
‘Frame the risks’
Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who until recently was England’s deputy chief medical officer, told the BBC the country was in a different situation from the peaks in infections earlier in the year.
He said: “I don’t wear a face covering, but if there were circumstances where I felt it was a really closed environment, with very high crowding and very intense social interaction, then those are the situations where I might think ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’.
“And I think people have got to learn to frame those risks for themselves.”
Kara Steel, the senior statistician at the ONS, said the latest data suggested the largest increases in people testing positive were in Scotland.
The stats are collated by testing thousands of people from UK households – whether or not they have symptoms – to estimate how much virus is around.
In the week ending 18 June, estimated Covid rates were:
- One in 40 in England – up from one in 50 the week before
- One in 45 in Wales – the same as the previous week
- One in 30 in Northern Ireland – up from one in 45
- One in 20 in Scotland – up from one in 30
Booster jabs
The number of people in hospitals and in intensive care with the virus is still below the peaks of earlier this year, but health officials are stressing vaccinations are still important.
UKHSA data suggests there have been some rises in Covid in care homes, and more people over 75 are ending up in the hospital than in recent weeks.
UKHSA epidemiologist Dr Mary Ramsay urged people in this age group and those living in care homes to get their spring booster vaccines.
She said: “Our data also shows that 17.5% of people aged 75 years and over have not had a vaccine within the past six months, putting them more at risk of severe disease.”
Booster jabs have been available since spring, for people 75 and over, living in care homes and those who are clinically vulnerable.
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Source: BBC
