The rate of covid infection across the United Kingdom is now ten times higher than it was last year, expert say.
Despite covid laws being essentially non-existent across the United Kingdom, 3.5 million people have been reported to have the virus as of last week. The rise comes as new variants appeared since rules were lifted.
Dr Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, has said people should be ready for another wave of covid as rates are "still very high." England's chief medical adviser Professor Chris Whitty has also backed Dr Harries' warning.
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The Omicron variant is reportedly better at evading immunity the body has built up from a previous infection. Robert Cuffe, head of statistics at BBC News said people are "pretty likely" to catch the virus again due to this.
He said: "Immunity fades and coronaviruses evolve. Most people can expect to catch the other coronaviruses, such as those which cause common cold symptoms, many times in their life.
"This looks very different to the versions of coronavirus that we saw before. Its differences give it a better chance of sneaking past the body's early defences, which were based on exposure to previous Covid infections. And so the rates of re-infection have been about 10 times higher this year compared with rates seen earlier in the pandemic."
Though the new variant of Omicron is more infectious than previous strains, it is less dangerous and less likely to make you sick. Immunologist Professor Eleanor Riley said: "Your main concern should be whether you might pass it on to someone who is particularly vulnerable." These warnings come as free covid tests are due to be scrapped across the UK from next week.
