Experts have warned that mass events over the summer could see Covid cases soar as the UK enters a fifth wave of the virus. Covid cases went up 23% week on week last week with 1.7million people testing positive for the disease - thanks to the newer BA.4 and BA.5 strains.
Experts now fear the figures will continue to rise - fuelled by huge events such as Glastonbury Festival, Notting Hill Carnival and the Edinburgh Festival, reports The Independent. The Jubilee weekend was followed by a 43% surge in cases.
Professor Tim Spector, of the ZOE Covid symptom study app, said: “We’re in a wave at the moment, heading towards a quarter of a million cases a day, that’s a wave already.”
He added: “Everyone is predicting an autumn wave but I don’t think anyone predicted this summer wave – that’s the difference. None of the modelling allowed for this, it didn’t take into account the effect of BA.5 variant which is dominant now.”
Professor Spector said there will 'definitely be disruption this summer' as 4% of people who catch the new variant Covid get sick for at least a month and many end up long-term sick.
He said 1,000 people are day are now going into hospital and added: "I don’t think many people are going to die of it but it has big social and economic impacts."
Professor Azeem Majeed, head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, said: “It looks like Covid-19 rates in the UK are starting to increase again and increased mixing of people – particularly if this takes place in poorly ventilated indoor settings – will keep infection rates high.”
Professor Linda Bauld, a public health expert at the University of Edinburgh, told The Independent: "We’re already in the middle of another rise in infections and the way the numbers have been going in the last three weeks I expect those numbers to continue to rise for a little while.
“Then they’ll probably go back down again then we’ll be worried again about the autumn.”
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UKHSA, said: “It is clear that the increasing prevalence of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 are significantly increasing the case numbers we have observed in recent weeks."
