Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths have both risen in Greater Manchester amid warnings of a new virus wave unfolding across the country. Variants with different symptoms - and an ability to pass by the immune system - are on their way, say experts.
The number of patients being hospitalised has more than doubled according to the latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). In the week ending on September 26, a total of 207 patients were admitted to Greater Manchester NHS hospitals with Covid-19.
That is 70 more than the week before - a rise of 51 per cent.
READ MORE: More than half a million people now on NHS waiting lists in Greater Manchester
In the week ending September 25, a total of 25 people died within 28 days of a positive Covid test across Greater Manchester, which is 11 more than the week before.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 1,047,408 confirmed coronavirus cases in Greater Manchester. The region is teetering on the edge of 10,000 deaths, with a total of 9,951 deaths so far.
The figures comes as there are warnings that a new wave of Covid could already be hitting the UK. One health expert has said two-thirds of people are now reporting a new dominant symptom instead of a loss of smell or a fever - a sore throat.
Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the Covid ZOE app, tweeted this morning (October 6) that Covid is increasing at over 221,000 daily cases, as well as cold-like illnesses too.
Without free mass testing, the accuracy of infection rates has diminished as fewer people test and report their result. But the available data shows that coronavirus infection rates have gone up in all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.
Wigan continues to have the highest coronavirus infection rate in Greater Manchester. The borough recorded a rate of 74.7 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending September 25, according to the latest data from UKHSA.
The lowest infection rate is in Manchester, where the rate is 38.5 cases per 100,000 people.
A total of 1,423 people tested positive for coronavirus across Greater Manchester in the week which ended on September 25. The Greater Manchester weekly total has increased by 464 cases compared to the previous week, which means the infection rate was up 48 per cent in the last week.
"At the moment, Covid starts in two-thirds of people with a sore throat," Professor Spector told The Independent. "Fever and loss of smell are really rare now – so many old people may not think they’ve got Covid. They’d say it’s a cold and not be tested.”
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, told the publication that two Omicron subvariants are showing signs of being able to escape the immune system. He's finding that the virus is evolving around the immunity that’s been built up through vaccines and infections people have had.
Office of National Statistics staff have been more cautious about labelling the uptick in cases as a new wave, saying they are waiting for more figures to roll in at the beginning of this winter.
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