There has “never been a riskier time to travel,” says Professor Tim Spector, lead scientist behind the Zoe Covid tracker app.
His data, based on more than 65,000 swab tests taken by volunteers with coronavirus symptoms, estimates 324,954 new cases a day across the UK – up 26 per cent on last week – with roughly three million people having the virus.
In the capital, the number of Covid cases being diagnosed has risen by 28 per cent in a week to 58,092. That is in fact encouraging news, in that the rate of increase was 50 per cent a week ago.
The Office for National Statistics – which itself reckons Covid cases have soared by around a million in a week – attributes the steep rise in infections to the Omicron BA.2 variant, a more transmissible form of Omicron.
But behavioural changes are undoubtedly a key driver too. I’m sure all West End Final readers continue to wear a mask on the Tube, but frankly, no one else is.
Professor Spector put it this way:
“The Government’s refusal to recognise the wide array of symptoms and to drop isolation advice and testing is likely driving the incredible number of cases we see today.
“Many people are no longer isolating when they have symptoms, either because they feel they don’t have to anymore or because they or their employers still don’t recognise symptoms like runny nose or sore throat as Covid.”
And that is how, two years and two days after Boris Johnson’s ‘You Must Stay At Home’ address to a bewildered nation, Covid-19 is affecting virtually more people in Britain than ever before.
Meanwhile, the number of patients with Covid in London hospitals is at its highest level for more than a month, and nationally more elderly people are being admitted than even during the height of the initial Omicron wave. More reason than ever to accelerate fourth doses to the over-75s and vulnerable groups.
Given that we’ve rather given up on non-medical interventions, what else is there to say except, thank goodness for the vaccines and antiviral medications.
In the comment pages, Defence Editor Robert Fox writes that in light of the last 20 years’ dramas and near defeats, Britain’s security now needs a vital reappraisal.
While Courts Correspondent Tristan Kirk say the establishment looked the other way from Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed’s cruel misdeeds.
And though it won’t end war or vanquish viruses, I’ve written an ode to sunshine – while also passing judgement on *that* Rishi Sunak photo-op with the car that turned out belonged to a Sainsbury’s employee.
Finally, Lonely Planet’s Tom Hall has written a lovely guide to the most scenic train journeys in Europe. The pictures are dreamy too.
Have a lovely weekend.
