Scots who have recovered from coronavirus have been warned that the latest subvariant can reinfect after four weeks, even if they have recently had the virus. The rapid infection rate of the new Omicron variant, known as BA.5, has partly caused cases to surge in the UK, as experts say 325,000 people are now catching Covid every day.
This comes as hospital admissions of those infected with the virus are on the rise. Public Health Scotland's latest figures revealed there were on average 1,450 patients in hospital with Covid-19, an increase of 26.3% from the previous week's number of 1,148, with 39 cases admitted to intensive care units.
Western Australia's chief health officer Andrew Robertson told news.com.au : “They (new variants) seem to be able to evade the protection from either having had a previous infection with BA2 or having had a vaccine. What we are seeing is an increasing number of people who have been infected with BA2 and then becoming infected (again) after four weeks.
“So maybe six to eight weeks (later) they are developing a second infection and that’s almost certainly either BA.4 or BA.5.”
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued an alert reminding people to check that they are up-to-date on their vaccines. They are also urging everyone to practice basic Covid health practices, like regular hand washing and applying hand sanitiser, reports Wales Online.
The new subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are quickly becoming the dominant variants, according to the latest Covid information on gov.uk, stating: “UKHSA’s latest analysis suggests that Omicron BA.5 is growing 35.1% faster than Omicron BA.2, while Omicron BA.4 is growing approximately 19.1% faster.
“This suggests that BA.5 is likely to become the dominant Covid-19 variant in the UK. The increasing prevalence of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 is likely to be a factor in the recent increase in cases seen in the UK and elsewhere, though there is currently no evidence that Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 cause more severe illness than previous variants.”
Dr David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told Insider that BA.4 and BA.5 reinfections were thought to be less severe than earlier Covid outbreaks.
He said : "If someone is exposed to a tricky subvariant as their protection is waning, the virus may find an opening. Anything that can get around that immune response just a little bit faster has an advantage when a lot of the population is immune."
