Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, has said Covid-19 infections are at “a very high level” but that they are not translating into hospital admissions and deaths. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are around three-and-a-half million people in the last week up to that point, up to March 25, which is a very high level.
“But what we’re not seeing of course is a significant translation of that into serious illness, hospitalisations and most importantly, deaths. There has been a small uptick in deaths in the last week and again… some hospitals are coming under significant pressure and we shouldn’t underestimate that.
“But overall, immune defences through the vaccination programme has been really successful and of course we now have treatments”.
It comes as the Omicron variant is predicted to have a “significant wave” in England, the nation’s chief medical officer has said. Professor Sir Chris Whitty said he expects the BA.2 variant to reappear over autumn and winter unless a new Covid variant takes its place.
Speaking at the Science of Covid conference, hosted by the Royal Society, he said: “Now we’re definitely not out of the woods. Even without a new variant we’re going to see quite a significant wave of BA.2, which I don’t think has topped out in England yet, it probably has in Scotland.
“But I’m sure it’ll run again, particularly when we get to autumn/winter, unless something else has come along. There will be multiple new variants and we may well get ones that are significantly vaccine-escaping, in which case, we’re in a very different place.”
Cases in England nearly reached a record high on Friday, with around one in 16 people in private households in England – or 3.5 million people – likely to have had Covid-19 in the week to March 19.
This is up from one in 20, or 2.7 million people, in the previous week and is the third week in a row that infections are estimated to have risen.
Asked if it is the right time to end free Covid testing, UKHSA chief Dame Jenny Harries said the UK must come to terms with the pandemic remaining unpredictable.
She said: “The pandemic takes its own course and it will remain unpredictable to a large extent for the next say 18 months to two years, I think is general consensus, and we will have to be continuously be alert to monitor those rates and to respond appropriately to any new variants.
“But as with other respiratory viruses such as flu… at some point we have to come to terms with that”.
People should continue to take precautions, she said, adding that she will continue to wear a mask in shops and on public transport.
She said warmer weather will likely drive down infection rates and that there are high levels of population immunity as long as people come forward for booster jabs.
