UK Covid cases are set to reach record levels next week and could double by the autumn, a study has warned.
As infection rates rocket across the nation, a new study has also revealed that Brits feel as though everything is “back to normal”.
It also found people were less likely to follow Covid rules after the Government's ‘ partygate ’ scandal.
The ZOE Covid study revealed that the total number of daily cases across the UK stands at 339,265.
The record according to the long running Covid study stands only slightly higher at 349,011 a day and experts expect it will be broken next week as rates are expected to continue to rise.
This figure also stands at almost three times what it was at the beginning of June and after the summer holidays, Tim Spector, the professor who runs the study, expects the figure to almost double.
The shocking expected rises in Covid have been driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
It is believed that they are much better at evading immunity built up by previous infection and vaccinations than prior omicron strains, causing the explosion in reinfections.
But experts at Swansea University did a study of public attitudes towards Covid and found that most people feel like life is back to normal, and rarely think about the deadly virus.
Psychologist Simon Williams told the i : “Our study shows that many people feel as though things have returned to normal, and haven’t been thinking about Covid much, if at all, recently.
“Many in the public feel as though life is ‘back to normal'. The way some in Government have been talking about ‘living with the virus’ in ‘post-pandemic’ UK, may have provided too much of a false sense of security.
“This is concerning, as we are currently in the middle of one wave, with new variants and new waves likely to emerge in autumn and winter.”
The qualitative study found that a lot of people are fatigued by over two years of Covid and a lack of attention given by the government and media also contributed to the issue.
It also found out that 'partygate' dented public willingness to comply with rules and guidance around Covid.
'Partygate' was a series of law-breaking parties held in No.10 and by the government which led to the likes of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak being fined.
As the rest of the nation followed the rules and missed the funerals of loved ones, staff inside No.10 partied.
The study added there were “worrying signs” that if future guidance was reintroduced people would be less likely to comply.
Due to its timely nature, it was published on the pre-print server Psyarxiv ahead of a peer review.
According to the ZOE covid study as of today there’s a predicted 4,026,483 people with symptomatic Covid, around one in 17 people in the UK.
This is two and a half times more than the beginning of June, signalling how quickly the picture is changing.
Scotland continues to lead the UK as the worst region for Covid rates, registering 5386-6188 new cases per million people every day.
Within Scotland, Aberdeenshire leads the way with the worst case rates locally, registering 144,054 cases per million people.
It was closely followed by Edinburgh, which had the second highest active cases.
Northern Ireland and London are not far behind as having the highest Covid rates. Southwark, and Hackney suffer among the highest rates in the capital, bordering around 90,000 cases per million.
According to the government's own Covid dashboard, Covid deaths, hospitalisations and cases are all up this week.
Whilst hospitalisations continue their sharp ascent, rising by almost a third, the number of used Covid tests remains low.
UK REGIONS DAILY NEW CASES PER MILLION PEOPLE
Scotland 5386-6188
Northern Ireland 4426-6876
London 5215-5768
South West 5064-5621
South East 4889-5299
Yorkshire and The Humber 4644-5398
Wales 4575-5415
East of England 4706-5259
North West 4469-5137
East Midlands 4396-5148
North East 4207-5341
West Midlands 4281-5012
