(and BA.5) UK, infections increasing
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare
Uptick in Covid hospital admissions in England
33% on the week
Increases will continue for weeks (2 or 3)
Caused by omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5
Spreading more readily than BA.2
Office for National Statistics
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19/latestinsights
Early signs of a possible increase in COVID-19 infections in England and Northern Ireland
Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, in the ascendancy
Taken over from Omicron BA.2
Taken over from Omicron BA.1
Taken over from Delta
Taken over from Alpha
Taken over from Wuhan original strain
Omicron wave hospital patients
19% caught the virus in hospital,
Update on likely hospital acquired admissions i.e. cases testing +ve more than 7 days post admission.
Likely hospital acquired cases accounted for 19% of Covid admissions and grew at 29% over the past week vs 8% growth for other admissions. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/XsCusJzS2w
— Adele Groyer (@AdeleGroyer) June 9, 2022
BA.4 and BA.5 variants emerged in South Africa
Both evade immunity from vaccination or infection
UK crossover point, (BA.4 and BA.5 over half of cases) Jubilee weekend (2nd to 4th June)
South Africa
https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/daily-hospital-surveillance-datcov-report/
BA.4 and BA.5 variants had already swept through South Africa, no major problems
Despite multiple reinfections,
Deaths in South Africa were only around a tenth of the peak during previous waves
Previous immunity has not protected against BA.4 and BA.5 infections
Reinfections will increase immunity
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2108120
December 2021
Qatar national cohort of 353,326
N = 1,304 reinfections
Reinfections were rare and were generally mild
(Risk of re-infection, x8 in omicron times compared to delta times)
Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections.
US data
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions
Source