An expert says a new variant of Covid-19 is one of the most infectious diseases the world has ever seen and he says almost everyone is going to catch it. Professor Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist and biostatistican, says the variant is up to six times more transmissible than the original strain of Covid.
Prof Esterman, a former World Health Organisation scientist, was speaking as cases of Covid rise 48% in a week in England, double in China to the worst levels that country has seen since the start of the pandemic and triple in part of Australia. The surge is believed to be driven by the new variant, BA.2, reports The Mail.
James Wood, a public health mathematician at the University of NSW, said: "We think [the first] Omicron is very similar to Delta and that BA.2 is then another 25-30 per cent more contagious."
