This Covid wave may be cresting – now let’s prepare for the next one

‘So much of our Covid risk is not in our own hands. We also need top-down solutions.’ Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Last week saw the first week-on-week fall in Covid hospitalisations in England since May. At the peak, in mid-July, an average of about 1,900 people were admitted to hospital with Covid each day in England. This is similar to the 2,100 admissions a day for the previous surge that topped out at the end of March, and the roughly 2,000 a day for the wave at the turn of the year.

The immunity acquired through high levels of infection in the previous two waves has proved insufficient to significantly reduce the burden of ill-health in this cycle: a reminder, if one were needed, that it makes no sense to get infected in order to prevent future infection.