Coronavirus cases are continuing to rise across the UK. In England nearly reached a record high on Friday, with around one in 16 people in private households in England – or 3.5 million people – likely to have had Covid-19 in the week to March 19.
This is up from one in 20, or 2.7 million people, in the previous week and is the third week in a row that infections are estimated to have risen. Professor Sir Chris Whitty said the new Omicron variant has “topped out” in Scotland – but is still predicted to have a “significant wave” in England.
He told the Science of Covid conference that he expects the 'stealth' BA.2 variant to reappear over autumn and winter unless a new Covid variant takes its place. He warned: “There will be multiple new variants and we may well get ones that are significantly vaccine-escaping, in which case, we’re in a very different place.”
