A nurse wearing full PPE on a ward for Covid-19 patients at King’s College Hospital in London
(Picture: PA Archive)A new Covid variant in the UK could fuel a surge in cases and put pressure on the NHS, health bosses have warned.
The BQ1 variant of Omicron currently makes up around half of all cases in Britain, compared to 39 per cent last week.
A total of 4,964 people testing positive for Covid were in hospital as of November 30, an 8 per cent rise on the previous week, NHS England figures show. The number of patients testing positive for the virus in hospital had previously been declining for around a month.
Hospital admissions have seen a small increase, rising from 4.7 admissions per 100,000 people in the week to November 27, up slightly from 4.5 the previous week.
It comes as flu cases have surged in London, with ten times more beds occupied by flu patients last week compared with the same period last year.
Professor Stephen Powis, medical director at NHS England, said: “We expect this to be the NHS’s most challenging winter yet.
“As we move towards Christmas we will see increasing levels of flu in the community and increasing numbers of patients needing admission to hospital.
“We are also starting to see increases in the numbers of patients with Covid.
“There is a new variant circulating – BQ1 – which is becoming the dominant variant and it seems likely that is going to drive further increases.
“In some countries in Europe that have it you can already see growth in hospital admissions. No doubt these pressures will increase.”
Meanwhile, flu levels are continuing to rise in England amid warnings that vaccine take-up among young children and pregnant women remain below that in previous years.
The number of children under the age of five being hospitalised with flu has jumped 70 per cent in a week, according to data released on Thursday.
More than 200 children aged under five were admitted to hospital in the week up to November 20 after suffering from serious complications with flu, UKHSA data showed.
Infection rates are estimated to be highest among five to 14-year-olds, with 18.5 per cent of laboratory samples from this age group testing positive, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Some 10.5 per cent of samples from all age groups tested positive in the week to November 27, up from 8.5 per cent the previous week.
Dr Mary Ramsay, director of public health programmes at the UKHSA, urged Britons to come forward for their Covid booster and flu jabs to prevent severe illness.
"While Covid-19 and flu can be mild infections for many, we must not forget that they can cause severe illness or even death for those most vulnerable in our communities."
