The UK’s Covid outbreak has grown for the second week in a row but there are already signs the uptick is slowing.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows 1.3million people in England were infected in the week to June 18, up by a fifth compared to seven days earlier.
Cases are also on the rise in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where positive tests jumped by up to 40 per cent in a week.
Sequencing data shows the resurgence is being driven by Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, which are thought to be even more infectious than earlier versions which saw cases reach pandemic highs in December and April.
Celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, half-term holidays and Caribbean-esque weather are also thought to be fuelling the latest surge. Some have also pointed to Britons mistaking Covid symptoms for hay fever.
But experts have confidence the upcoming wave will be no worse than other peaks seen this year. And they do not expect a sharp increase in hospitalisations.
NHS England data shows daily Covid admissions breached 1,000 this week for the first time in two months. But only a third of patients were primarily admitted because they were unwell due to the virus.
Speaking this morning before the latest figures were released, Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s former deputy chief medical officer, said there is ‘nothing alarmist’ in the rise.
The prevalence of the Omicron subvariants has nearly doubled every week, according to data from the Sanger Institute — one of the UK’s largest Covid surveillance centres. The strains’ combined 57.4 per cent share of infections in the week to June 11 is up from 41.7 per cent in the week to June 4, 21.2 per cent in the week to May 28 and 11 per cent in the week to May 21. Dominant strain BA.2, which was behind nearly all cases when infections hit a record high in March, now accounts for just 41.7 per cent of cases
While Covid admissions have risen in the past week they are still well behind figures from just a few months ago
The recently knighted Sir Jonathan said Britons need to make their own mind up about if a situation warranted wearing a mask (pictured wearing a mask in November last year)
Kara Steel, senior statistician for the Covid infection survey, said: ‘Rates have continued to rise across the UK, with the largest increase seen in Scotland.
‘In England, infections increased across all age groups, with the lowest level of infection seen in school aged children.
‘These increases are largely driven by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. We will continue to closely monitor the data.’
It comes as Sir Jonathan dismissed hysteria that the uptick in cases marks a new wave of the pandemic, saying Britain has to learn to live the virus.
Speaking about the ONS figures for last week, which showed a 40 per cent jump in cases, the newly-knighted scientist said there was ‘nothing alarmist’ about the rise.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It is an uptick but it is really very small still in relation to the kind of peaks that we saw in January and April.
‘The hospitalisation signal most importantly is very small indeed. At the moment there is nothing alarmist in these figures.’
Members of Independent SAGE, a pressure group that previously called for a zero-Covid policy, last week called for a return to wearing masks indoors and meeting outdoors in response to rising Covid rates.
But Sir Jonathan said hospitalisation, intensive care admissions and deaths are the true metric of whether Covid warrants further concern.
NHS England figures show daily Covid hospital admissions in England surpassed 1,000 for the first time in two months this week.
And there are around 6,000 Covid inpatients now compared to 16,000 at the April peak.
Sir Jonathan said: ‘The data still show that although when cases go up hospitalisations go up the proportion of people requiring hospitalisation is way, way, way lower than when Covid first appeared on the scene.
‘That is because of vaccination and to a smaller extent acquired immunity as we’ve caught Covid in the interim.’
Sir Jonathan, who is now pro-vice-chancellor for medicine and health sciences at the University of Nottingham, added that the country had to learn to live with the virus similar to the other winter bugs it now resembled.
He said: ‘We just accept that in the winter that if you’ve got seasonal flu and you’re poorly for a few days it disrupts your life.
‘We’ve got to start frame Covid a little more in those terms to be truthful.’
As well as the rise of Omicron sub-variants and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the uptick in caess has also been pinned on people wrongly assuming they have hay fever when they actually have Covid.
Coughing, sneezing and a runny nose are now all tell-tale signs of the coronavirus, which has become milder as the pandemic has worn on.
But they are also symptoms which plague the lives of millions of hay fever sufferers when pollen levels begin to shoot upwards, like they have over the past fortnight.
The recent spike in Covid cases prompted the NHS to urge eligible Britons to come forward for their Spring booster.
Health chiefs have asked a million eligible older Britons to get their fourth dose this month, so they have the necessary time between jabs ahead of an autumn booster.
Multiple experts have warned cases of the virus — which many believe is morphing into another cause of the common cold — will continue to periodically flare-up.
Meanwhile, hospital admissions for Covid have started to increase, piling extra pressure on an already overwhelmed NHS.
Government data shows the number of admissions rose 24 per cent over the last week.
On average around 900 Brits are being admitted and testing positive each day.
The number of ventilator beds occupied with infected patients has remained reactively stable at under 200, about 23 times lower than the levels seen during the darkest days of the pandemic.
Sir Jonathan, 57, announced his departure from public office in January this year during the height of Boris Johnson’s ‘partygate’ scandal, returning to academic work at the University of Nottingham in May
He was knighted for his service to the nation during the pandemic but ironically had to miss the ceremony last month after testing positive for the virus.
A straight-talking voice of calm, JVT shot to fame in the early stages of the pandemic for his use of football-related metaphors to explain complex science.
He has fronted many Downing Street press conferences, attracting a legion of fans who have bought T-shirts with his face and phrases emblazoned across the front.
How JVT’s colourful analogies helped the public understand the pandemic and made him a household name
Defensive midfielders
JVT, a fan of Boston United, likened the vaccination programme to defensive football players whose job it was to ‘watch everybody’s back’.
At a Downing Street press conference he said: ‘A bit like a football game where the strikers who score the wonder goals are the ones who make the headlines, actually, the hard yards are done by the defenders and by the defensive midfielders tracking back, tracking back for 90 minutes of the whole game, watching everybody’s back.
‘This is what it’s going to be about now, tracking back and making sure that we finish the job properly in the phase one cohorts before we move on.’
Grand National
He compared the pandemic to the Aintree horse race when he warned Britain could not fall at the final fence.
‘The vaccine effects are going to take three months until we see them properly, and until then no-one can relax,’ he told The Sun.
‘We are probably in the last few furlongs of this race – like in the Grand National. We just have a couple more fences, we have just got to stick with it.’
Penalties
Football is a common tool used by JVT to explain Britain’s progress through the coronavirus pandemic.
He once described the development of the Pfizer vaccine to reaching the penalties at the end of the play-off final.
‘So this is like… getting to the end of the play-off final, it’s gone to penalties, the first player goes up and scores a goal.
‘You haven’t won the cup yet, but what it does is, it tells you that the goalkeeper can be beaten.’
Landing a plane
The progress of the vaccine rollout has been compared to different forms of transport, including a plane coming in to land.
JVT said: ‘Do I believe that we are now on the glide path to landing this plane? Yes I do.
‘Do I accept that sometimes when you are on the glide path, you can have a side wind and the landing is not totally straightforward, totally textbook? Of course.’
Crowded trains
JVT said the pandemic was like waiting on a platform for a train, with the lights ‘a long way off’.
He said: ‘This to me is like a train journey, it’s wet, it’s windy, it’s horrible.
‘Two miles down the tracks, two lights appear and it’s the train and it’s a long way off and we’re at that point at the moment. That’s the efficacy result.
‘Then we hope the train slows down safely to get into the station, that’s the safety data, and then the train stops.
‘And at that point, the doors don’t open, the guard has to make sure it’s safe to open the doors. That’s the MHRA, that’s the regulator.’
He said the train was the vaccine, and he hoped when it was ready there would not be ‘an unholy scramble for the seats’.
‘The JCVI has very clearly said which people need the seats most and they are the ones who should get on the train first.’
Red card
JVT said Britons needed to avoid getting a ‘red card’ from the Omicron coronavirus variant by getting a booster jab.
He said: ‘Omicron is like now picking up a couple of yellow cards to key players on top. We may be OK but we’re kind of starting to feel at risk that we might go down to 10 players and if that happens – or it’s a risk that’s going to happen – then we need everyone on the pitch to up their game in the meantime.
‘We’re not going to wait for the red card to happen, we are going to act decisively now and we’re asking everyone to up their game, we’re asking everyone to play their part in the urgency now of the booster programme, coming forward the moment you are called by the NHS.’
Yogurt
When explaining the extreme temperature the coronavirus vaccine must be stored at, JVT said it was not like a yogurt.
He added: ‘This is a complex product. It’s not a yoghurt that can be taken out of the fridge and put back in multiple times.’
And other famous moments…
When he ripped off his shirt
The professor proceeded to rip off his shirt and tie, disappearing into a cloud of smoke
Professor Van-Tam was hosting the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC Four when he ripped off his shirt and tie, disappeared into a cloud of smoke – and reemerged in slightly less formal attire, wearing a more casual blue shirt underneath his jacket.
The stunt sparked a typical reaction on social media, with one account comparing JVT – as he’s widely become known – to Steve Coogan’s comedy cringe character, Alan Partridge.
When he dealt calmly with an anti-vaxxer
JVT stayed completely calm and responded politely to an anti-vaxxer who screamed abuse at him in Westminster last June.
Geza Tarjanyi, 60, of Leyland, Lancashire, targeted the Deputy Chief Medical Officer as he walked into the Ministry of Defence building.
He said: ‘Are you Van-Tam, aren’t ya? What was really in that needle that you put into Matt Hancock? Why are you continually lying to the British people? Why are you smiling? This country’s supposed to be in the worst pandemic of all time.’
Professor Van-Tam politely replied: ‘It is.’ And when, following another torrent of abuse, the anti-vaxxer asked JVT if he was listening, the expert said: ‘What? I’m finding it difficult.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk