A new Covid sub-variant that can evade immunity could now account for one in 11 of all current infections in England, according to the latest briefing from the UK Health Security Agency.
BA.4.6, the not-so-catchy scientific name for this new strain of Omicron (BA.5), was first identified on August 15 but has since spread at an increasing rate across England, tripling to 9 per cent of all sequenced cases as of the most recent data.
There are currently 1,697 cases of BA.4.6 identified in England, though this number only represents the number of infections both tested for and genetically sequenced, not in the general population.
