Experts have warned of a fresh Covid wave this winter and issued an update on the main new symptom to watch out for. They have said the government’s guidelines around symptoms are “wrong”.
They also warned that the new wave will be worse due to a lack of testing and the limited surveillance surrounding new variants. A whopping 1.1 million who are in private households tested positive for the virus in the seven days to September 17 in England and the week up until September 20 in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, an ONS survey has found.
That is a 14% rise in infections while it is also the first time the figures have been over one million since back in August. However the numbers are still well below the 3.8 million weekly infections that occurred back in July during the peak of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
The MEN are reporting that the co-founder of the Covid Zoe App Tim Spector is saying that the UK is already at the start of the next wave. The expert has told The Independent: “It looks like we’re in the start of the next wave and this time it’s affected older people slightly earlier than the last wave.
Experts have warned of a fresh Covid wave this winter and issued an update on the main new symptom to watch out for. They have said the government’s guidelines around symptoms are “wrong”.
They also warned that the new wave will be worse due to a lack of testing and the limited surveillance surrounding new variants. A whopping 1.1 million who are in private households tested positive for the virus in the seven days to September 17 in England and the week up until September 20 in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, an ONS survey has found.
That is a 14% rise in infections while it is also the first time the figures have been over one million since back in August. However the numbers are still well below the 3.8 million weekly infections that occurred back in July during the peak of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
The MEN are reporting that the co-founder of the Covid Zoe App Tim Spector is saying that the UK is already at the start of the next wave. The expert has told The Independent: “It looks like we’re in the start of the next wave and this time it’s affected older people slightly earlier than the last wave.
“Many people are still using the government guidelines about symptoms which are wrong. At the moment, Covid starts in two-thirds of people with a sore throat.
“Fever and loss of smell are really rare now – so many old people may not think they’ve got Covid. They’d say it’s a cold and not be tested.”
Prof Spector told the newspaper that early data showed new sub variants of Omicron were becoming immune-evasive and could cause the UK ‘real problems’ as winter approaches with the NHS ‘already on its knees’. Hospitals will now be threatened by two more Omicron sub variants: BA.2.75.2 derived from BA.2, and BQ1.1 derived from BA.5, according to University of Warwick virologist Professor Lawrence Young.
