Future Covid variants could be worse than Omicron, a senior UK health official has warned.
Speaking at a Downing Street Covid briefing yesterday, Professor Sir Chris Whitty said that there is a risk that any further strains of the virus could cause ‘significant problems’ for the UK.
England’s Chief Medical Officer added the next new variant could contain “vaccine escaping” properties or could result in more people ending up in hospital.
“They could be either more vaccine escaping, but as severe as Omicron, but the net effect would be actually more people end up in hospital because a lot of our protections from vaccination, or it could be more intrinsically severe because Omicron came from a much earlier variant.
“So we could certainly end up with something which more likely to lead to hospitalisations than Omicron and therefore we need to be very careful.”
His comments came as Boris Johnson announced that almost all of the remaining Covid restrictions in England will be lifted over the coming days and weeks.
The legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive Covid test will end from this Thursday, while free universal testing for the virus will end from April 1.
Both changes to the rules will only be applicable in England.
Nicola Sturgeon will later today announce details of the Scottish Government’s new framework in living with Covid.
The First Minister will update MSPs on how the country will respond to any future spike in Covid cases caused by the emergence of new variants.
Sturgeon is also expected to explain whether or not the vaccine passport scheme will continue after it was ditched in England and Wales.
There is also likely to be clarity on the future of the free lateral flow testing scheme in Scotland following the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday.
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