[ad_1]
The number of cases of being hospitalised due to Covid-19 has doubled in the past two weeks, as the autumn wave begins to surge. This has led to growing fears that as the number of Covid patients who need to be hospitalised grows, the NHS could be left overwhelmed, causing other operations to be pushed back and face a major backlog. According to NHS figures, there are now about 1,129 new patients per day – up from 574 per day in mid-September. Overall cases are also climbing, which is causing health chiefs to warn that they could be seeing the third wave of patients since April. On Wednesday, 9,631 people who sent to the hospital due to Covid, which is the highest since the first week of August,
Dr Susan Hopkins, the chief medical advisor at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “This week’s data shows concerning further increases in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisation rates, which are now at their highest level in months.
“Outbreaks in hospitals and care homes are also on the rise. Make sure you have any vaccinations you are eligible for and avoid contact with others if you feel unwell or have symptoms of an infection.”
The NHS is currently rolling out its autumn booster shots, and have given the new vaccine to 5.4 million people, out of the 30 million eligible.
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that one million people were infected with the coronavirus in the week up to September 20.
While Covid cases have been growing since the start of September, experts hope that this wave will be milder than the one last winter. Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said: “In my view, it’s unlikely that we will see pressures on the health service anywhere near as great as we saw last winter.”
Aside from the immediate effects of the virus, long covid symptoms also present a major challenge for health authorities, as over a million people reportedly have long covid, a year after they were infected.
According to the ONS, a total of 2.3million people have suffered from the lingering effects of Covid that lasted for more than a month, with 45 percent of people facing brain fog, and two third of them facing fatigue.
As cases of Covid-19 surge across the country, experts have warned that a lack of surveillance has left the country flying “blind” to new variants of the virus, some of which could dodge immunity.
READ MORE: New Covid variant primed to ‘swarm’ the UK by next month
According to early data, new subvariants of Omicron have been “evolving around the immunity” that was built up over the past year through vaccinations and Covid infections.
Professor Tim Spector, the co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, told The Independent, that as the winter approaches, these new “immune-evasive” subvariants could cause the UK “real problems”, particularly with the NHS “already on its knees”.
Meanwhile, University of Warwick virologist, Professor Lawrence Young, warned that two Omicron subvariants – BA.2.75.2 derived from BA.2, and BQ1.1 derived from BA.5 – had shown evidence of being able to evade immunity from the virus, which was causing concern among the health experts.
He said: “The biggest concern we’re seeing is that in early data these variants are starting to cause a slight increase in infections. In a way, this was to be expected but it does demonstrate that we’re not out of the woods yet at all with this virus, sadly.”
DON’T MISS:
Putin’s nuclear targets predicted – experts weigh in on damage [ANALYSIS]
Scientists’ warning as ocean to vanish as ‘supercontinent’ forms [REPORT]
Putin humiliated as key EU ally unveils plans to end Russia reliance [REVEAL]
He warned that while these new variants were slightly different in how they had evolved to reach the same changes needed to escape the body’s immune system.
He said: “What we’re finding is the virus is evolving around the immunity that’s been built up through vaccines and countless infections people have had.”
The experts warned that a lack of surveillance around the new subvariants, combined with factors like the lack of free tests, had created conditions for the “perfect storm” of another Covid spike.
Prof. Young said: “We’ve really taken our eye off the ball with Covid tests. People are going to get various infections over the winter but won’t know what they are because free tests aren’t available – it’s going to be a problem.
[ad_2]
