COVID-19 instances had been rising among the many over-55s in England, a examine discovered on Thursday, with elevated social contact, waning of booster safety and a extra contagious subvariant of Omicron presumably driving a rise in hospitalisations.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson in February lifted the final coronavirus restrictions in England and abolished a authorized requirement to self-isolate after testing constructive for the virus.
Johnson took these steps after Omicron peaked at the beginning of the 12 months with out inflicting a wave of hospitalisations and deaths to overwhelm the well being service, which he attributed to the booster programme and Omicron’s decrease severity.
The Imperial School London REACT examine, performed from Feb. 8 to March 1, discovered that COVID-19 prevalence was 2.88%, in comparison with 4.41% in January.
However whereas prevalence fell in under-17s and 18-54-year-olds throughout February, for these 55 and older, it was estimated to have elevated over the month.
Britain has additionally seen an increase in hospital admissions of sufferers with COVID-19 because the final week of February, reversing a steadily declining development because the begin of the 12 months.
“I feel the timing does match with there being extra mixing, increased infections, doable waning after which that feeding via into hospitalisations,” Imperial epidemiologist Paul Elliott advised reporters.
Britain has introduced a spring booster will probably be supplied to over-75s and another weak teams as a precaution in case waning immunity from the preliminary booster lowers safety in opposition to extreme illness. Learn full story
The Imperial examine additionally discovered that the Omicron subvariant BA.2 was taking on from the beforehand dominant BA.1.
“BA.2 appears to be extra transmissible… it could lengthen the Omicron wave of the pandemic,” Elliott mentioned.
Epidemiologists have highlighted the significance of prevalence surveys just like the REACT examine for monitoring the virus in mild of presidency plans to section out free mass testing.
Elliott mentioned that the examine, funded by the well being ministry, would have another spherical in March, however didn’t have funding to proceed for longer.
A separate Workplace for Nationwide Statistics survey will probably be maintained in a lowered kind, PM Johnson has mentioned. Learn full story
(Reuters)