Great Britain could be facing a new wave of Covid infections, driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 - with three counties in particular seeing a surge in cases.
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) up to June 2 suggests that England and Northern Ireland are beginning to see a rise in cases, with obfuscated trends for Wales and Scotland.
Infection levels are estimated to have risen in London, North West England and South East England - with early signs of an increase to follow in eastern England.
Read more: The rise and fall of the BA.2 'Stealth Omicron' Covid variant in the North East
The Mirror reports that Rutland in the East Midlands appears to have seen the biggest surge. The county, which is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and to the southeast by Northamptonshire, has seen a jump of 233% in cases over the last 14 days.
Data collected by the New York Times from Data for the UK Department for Health and Social Care, Public Health England and the Chief Medical Officer Directorate shows the infection rate is 31 per 100,000.
Other areas to see a surge include North East Lincolnshire with 132% and Middlesbrough with 179%.
Experts worry these latest mutations may have evolved to infect lung tissue, as did the earliest forms of the virus, making them more dangerous.
BA.4 and BA.5 - first detected in Africa in January and February - were designated as variants of concern in the UK on May 20, though the bulk of infections appear to continue to be down to the dominant BA.2 variant.
The UK Health Security Agency is also monitoring BA.5.1 - an offshoot of BA.5 - and the BA.2.12.1 subvariant, which remains the dominant strain in the US.
Some 797,500 people in private households in England were likely to test positive for Covid-19 in the week ending June 2, the equivalent of about one in 70, the ONS said. This is up week on week from 784,100, which was also about one in 70.
Wales has seen Covid-19 infections increase slightly to 40,500 people, up from 39,600. Both estimates are equivalent to around one in 75 people and the ONS describes the trend there as 'uncertain'.
Immunity from the booster vaccines is waning in the majority of the population, with only over-75s and extremely vulnerable groups offered the spring dose. Meanwhile, infection from BA.1 or BA.2 may not protect against the newest variants.
“It looks as though these things are switching back to the more dangerous form of infection, so going lower down in the lung,” Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told the Guardian.
In response to whether the virus is on the verge of turning into the common cold, he added: "It clearly isn’t, and there’s no pressure on it to do that, really."
Separate figures show the recent fall in the number of people in hospital with the virus may have come to a halt.
Some 4,602 patients in England had Covid-19 on June 13, up 12% on the previous week, while in Wales the figure looks to have levelled off at around 250 to 260.
Patient numbers in both nations had previously been on a steady downwards trend since early April, following the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave, but they remain well below the levels reached in all previous waves of the virus.
Despite the rise in cases, the ONS figures show a 55% week-on-week drop in Covid-related deaths in the seven days up to June 3, with 186 fatalities registered in that time mentioning the virus on the death certificate - the lowest number since July 2021.
However, the latest total covers a period that includes the bank holidays marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee on June 2 and 3, when most register offices were closed. This means fewer deaths were registered than would normally be the case.
The disruption to registrations caused by the bank holidays is likely to have exaggerated the size of the week-on-week drop in registrations, but it is the fifth week in a row the figures have shown a decrease - suggesting Covid-19 deaths are continuing on a clear downwards trend.
Read next:
