That second Omicron’s COVID-19 surge appears to have peaked already, the data suggests.
spicy rise in infections since second half of February, driving a BA.2 version of Omicron and relaxation of restrictions, slow down for a few days.
And the UK Health Security Agency now says incidence rates in England ‘remained stable’ in weeks until March 27th.
Encouraging news comes on in last day of free side flow tests in Englandwhich is sharp reduce in ability to track the virus.
That news comes after the families of the dead marched on downing street to demand that the COVID National Memorial Wall by the River Thames in London will be saved for good.
According to the Weekly Influenza and COVID-19 Surveillance Report, cases already the fall in southwest of England and nationally in children aged 5 to 9 years.
However, rates are still rising slowly in other age groups and more steadily in in north-East of England.
Daily Data on COVID dashboard is also promising.
This shows incidence rates in Scotland down on their peak and leveled off in the other place in Great Britain.
Covid-19 test shows positive result – widely spread access free sideflow trials end this week
The dashboard is no longer a reliable measure of size of epidemics in the UK because the number of people testing and reporting results fell sharply after the cancellation of plan B.
But even with less people you can still check show trends.
Or at least it has been so far.
To read more: How can I get sidestream tests from Friday and how are they many cost?
The light will be dim on dashboard when testing is stopped in England. Free side streams available for pair more weeks in Scotland and summer in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Dashboard Data on hospitalization and mortality will continue to be useful indicators of the situation in the UK.
But the only indication of infection rates comes from the FDA’s weekly report. for national statistics. This runs own testing program of more than 100,000 randomly selected people.
Although it provides an accurate shot of what kind of virus up to – because people checked whether they have symptoms or not – there is a significant backlog in data.
swing between population immunity and highly contagious virus
ONS looks at prevalence – how many people have COVID- in Any one week.
Is not just check of recently acquired infections; It includes people got infected a week or two earlier and still test positive.
So don’t be surprised if ONS data continues show but rise in infections for a couple more of weeks before the fall.
If the UK follows suit of splash BA.2 in Denmark and the Netherlands will be cool drop in cases.
What we see at the moment is a swing between population immunity and a highly contagious virus.
For last had the virus for several weeks edge because it was enough people vulnerable to infection to keep it spreading.
But the high infection rate more over 4 million recovered from COVID in last ONS weekly score – quickly increase immunity throughout the populationtopping up booster jab barrier.
Combined effect of vaccine and natural immunity slow down the virus down again and things go down.
Unfortunately it won’t be last we see of COVID, however, as vaccine immunity wanes in all age groups.
One more booster for over-75s
Those over 75 people are asking for another booster to lift them up protection against serious illness.
But younger people will become more vulnerable to infection over time on – so that the swing capsizes in the favor of the virus once again.
It’s impossible to predict with confidence when next there will be a splash. But government signaling autumn booster campaign and vaccine manufacturers are testing specific Omicron vaccines, quite good prompt of what will happen next.
