A Covid variant more dangerous than Omicron is likely to hit the UK within the next few years, a leading UK health expert has warned.
Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the UK’s Chief Medical Adviser, said that the virus is set to remain a problem in the country for at least the next two to three years.
He also claimed that the virus is likely to mutate further as it continues to adapt to our bodies, The i reports.
The public were also told to simply ‘roll with it’ and expect more surprises to come rather than hoping for an end point in the pandemic’s life cycle.
“The pandemic is going to become, over time, less dominant steadily, but we’re going to have a significant problem with it in multiple parts of the world for the rest of our lives”, Professor Whitty said.
“I’m expecting it to be probably in the UK seasonal, but interspersed, at least for the next two to three years by new variants while it’s still evolving essentially to adapt to humans, which may occur in between seasonal peaks.
“So I think we should just accept that is what we’re going to deal with and just roll with it, rather than expect some end point.”
Professor Whitty went on to say that Omicron is not ‘mild’ as vaccinations are greatly lowering the risks from the virus.
Scotland is currently in the midst of a resurgence of Covid cases due to the highly transmissible BA.2 variant, which has been referred to as ‘stealth Omicron’.
It has been suggested that BA.2 could be 80 per cent more transmissible than the original Omicron strain, BA.1.
Nicola Sturgeon said that BA.2 accounts for more than 80 per cent of all reported Covid cases in Scotland during an address to the Scottish Parliament last week.
The number of people in Scotland currently in hospital with Covid has now reached 2,257 - which is the highest ever recorded during the pandemic.
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