Covid news – live: Hospital patients up by 37% as experts warn of fifth wave
NHS says bed demand at winter level as 1.7 million test positive
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Hospitals beds in England taken up by Covid-19 patients have surged by 37 per cent, as experts warned UK has entered its fifth wave.
New NHS data showed the number of positive patients jumped to 7,822 - up by more than 2,000 in a week.
Coronavirus cases have increased sharply in recent weeks, with the latest figures showing 1.7 million people testing positive across the UK, a 23 per cent increase on the week before.
The figures followed warnings from experts that UK has hit its fifth wave and could spell trouble for the NHS as it is already facing the same level of winter levels of demand on beds. The increase is being driven by the recent BA.4 and BA.5 variants, subvariants of Omicron.
Professor Tim Spector, of the ZOE Covid symptom study app, warned that large summer events could could “potentially have a big effect” on Covid rates.
“Events like Glastonbury will drive up cases but the question is how much do they account for,” he told The Independent.
ICYMI: Calls for UK booster jabs by autumn as cases continue to rise
Covid boosters will be needed in September as cases continue to rise, a government vaccines expert has warned.
Professor Adam Finn, a member of the government’s Joint Committee on Immunisations and Vaccinations, suggested a fifth jab will need to be rolled out for the most vulnerable as immunity to the virus gained by previous booster campaigns wanes.
Our health correspondent Rebecca Thomas reports:
Calls for Covid booster jabs by autumn as cases continue to rise
UK may face significant flu epidemic alongside Covid, vaccines expert warns
Omicron BA.5 growing much faster than dominant variant
Research published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suggests newer variants of Covid-19 are growing faster than the dominant one, Omicron BA.2.
The latest wave of the virus is being driven by BA.4 and BA.5, which now make up more than half of all new cases in England.
BA.5 is growing approximately 35 per cent faster than BA.2 while BA.4 is growing 19 per cent faster – meaning it is likely that BA.5 will soon become the dominant variant in the country.
There is “currently no evidence” the two variants cause more serious illness than previous variants, however.
Professor Susan Hopkins, UKHSA chief medical adviser, said: “It is clear that the increasing prevalence of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 are significantly increasing the case numbers we have observed in recent weeks.”
Covid situation elsewhere in Europe
Britain is not the only country experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases.
France, which lifted restrictions shortly after the UK, has been seeing more than 50,000 cases daily for more than one week, acording to John Hopkins University Covid data – higher than England’s daily recorded case load by tens of thousands.
Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, which, again, opened up around the same time, are also seeing rising cases, though at a much lower rate than Britain and France.
Germany, which was slower to open up and has maintained some measures such as masks on public transport, is seeing a sharp rise with more than 100,000 cases on several days in the past few weeks.
Most infectious Covid variants as Omicron fuels rise in UK cases
Maryam Zakir-Hussain runs through the variants of Covid-19 based on how contagious they are. Everything from the original virus to the latest variant of concern is in here, putting into perspective a long two years defined by how fast the virus spread at any given time:
These are the most infectious Covid variants since the pandemic began
How the most common of the 11 variants compare
Latest England Covid data
Government data up to Wednesday 22 June unless noted otherwise:
- 25,021 people have had a first vaccine dose in the past seven days; 47,404 have had a second
- 101,157 people have tested positive in the past seven days – up 33.9 per cent on last week
- 354 people have died within 28 days of a positive test
- 7,578 people admitted to hospital in the past seven days (data to Saturday 25 June) –
France seeks to bring back masks in public spaces amid Covid-19 surge
French people should start wearing masks again in crowded areas, especially in public transport, as France has to deal with a new wave of Covid-19 fuelled by new variants of the disease, health minister Brigitte Bourguignon said.
“I’m not saying it should be mandatory but I do ask the French people to put the mask on in public transport,” she told RTL, adding it was a “civic duty” to do so.
“I’m not merely advising it, I’m asking for it,” adding face masks should also be worn again in other closed areas, such as workplaces or shops.
New infections have been steadily rising since the end of May in France, with the seven-day moving average of daily new cases more then quadrupling between the 27 May figure of 17,705 and today’s 71,018.
Five days fit for isolation, US study finds
A new study supports current US guidelines that call for a five-day isolation period for Covid-19 infections followed by five days of strict masking to help prevent transmission from cases that remain culture positive, researchers said.
Boston University School of Medicine researchers collected daily nasal swabs for at least 10 days from 92 vaccinated college students and staff infected with the Delta or Omicron variants of the coronavirus for analysis with PCR and with the kind of rapid-antigen tests that are available for home use.
Among these young and otherwise healthy adults, only 17 per cent still tested positive after five days, and no one was infectious beyond 12 days after symptom onset, the researchers reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The results were similar regardless of variant or vaccine booster status, and negative rapid antigen tests were very reliable, according to the report.
While rapid antigen testing “may provide reassurance of lack of infectiousness ... a full 10 days is necessary to prevent transmission from the 17 per cent of individuals who remain culture positive after isolation,” study leader Dr Tara Bouton said in a statement.
Reuters
NHS patients asked to travel for treatment to help clear two-year hospital waiting lists
Patients who have been waiting more than two years for treatment will be given the choice of travelling to another area to get it more quickly under plans to clear NHS clear up waiting lists.
Health service bosses described the move as a “final push” to “virtually eliminate” the number of people who have been waiting 24 months to be seen by a medic, the number of which has fallen from a peak of 22,500 in January to 6,700 after the Covid-19 pandemic caused waiting lists to mount.
Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, said the plan was “ambitious” but staff were “on track” to meet the target by the end of next month.
More than 400 people have agreed to travel to take up the offer and the NHS said it will cover travel and accommodation costs to patients “where appropriate”.
NHS patients asked to travel for treatment to help clear two-year waiting lists
NHS England says ‘final push’ will ‘virtually eliminate’ backlogs
Covid hospital patients in England up by 37 per cent
Hospital beds taken up by Covid patients have surged by 37 per cent, as experts warn the UK has hit its fifth wave (Rebecca Thomas and Thomas Kingsley write).
The number of Covid positive patients in hospitals across England has jumped to 7,822 - up by more than 2000 in a week.
New NHS data has revealed the number of positive patients within critical care as of Monday also jumped to 192 – up from 150 the week prior.
The figures come as experts warn the UK has hit its fifth wave and could spell trouble for the NHS which is already facing winter levels of demand.
Professor Tim Spector, of the ZOE Covid symptom study app, told The Independent: “We’re in a wave at the moment ... heading towards a quarter of a million cases a day, that’s a wave already.
“Having our NHS, which already on its knees, working like it’s in the middle of winter, we’re getting up to 1,000 hospitalisations a day now, it’s not good news, that figure is going to go up.”
Covid hospital patients in England up by 37 per cent
Hospital admissions continue to grow as experts warn ‘NHS is already on its knees’
This will be the end of The Independent’s live coverage of Covid-19 for tonight.
For the latest on the pandemic in Britain, our health correspondent Rebecca Thomas has this update.
We will be bringing you more updates tomorrow.
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