A ‘tidal wave’ of infections hitting county
WARNINGS AS NEW STRAIN SPREADING
The dramatic rise in infection rates of the Omicron variant has been described as being like a “tidal wave” hitting communities across Leicestershire.
Mike Sandys, public health director at Leicestershire County Council, has revealed the number of infections in Charnwood, Blaby, Oadby and Wigston, North West Leicestershire, Harborough, Melton and Hinckley and Bosworth districts has increased 10 fold in a matter of days.
He said health bosses and public health officials are scrambling to respond.
“It’s a tidal wave of infections - and it’s with us now,” he said. “The one thing that seems significantly different about this variant is the speed with which it’s moving.
“The rate of spread, here in Leicestershire as in other parts of the country, has surprised everyone. We haven’t seen anything like it since the beginning of the pandemic.”
The picture on the ground is constantly changing, just as people are preparing for Christmas and the festive holiday.
“It’s incredibly difficult to predict what’s going to happen,” said Mr Sandys. “Even 10 days ago, I was thinking this was going to overtake the Delta strain of the virus maybe by early-January.
“But as each day has passed, I’ve realised it’s on us already. The figures are just exploding.”
According to the latest statistics available from Public Health England last week, there were 21 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the county on Sunday. That rose to 135 the following day and 221 on Tuesday.
Mr Sandys said the figures could well be significantly higher as just 40 per cent of positive coronavirus samples were being sent to labs for testing.
A positive Omicron infection is only recorded once technicians confirm a “proxy indicator” - the absence of an “S” gene in a sample.
“Just a short while ago I would have said everyone should just keep calm and continue with the restrictions we had in place and continue with the take-up of booster vaccinations,” he said.
“The problem is, with previous variants such as the Kent variant and later the Delta, we could see what was happening first in large urban centres such as London.
“We’d normally get a week or so to see what the pattern of spread was. But what people need to understand is Omicron is with already with us – and it’s here right now.
“The speed at which it’s spreading is simply scary.”
Leicester is facing unprecedented pressure because of a surge in Omicron cases, a public health expert has warned politicians.
Consultant Rob Howard told a meeting at Leicester City Council this week that the new strain of coronavirus was spreading rapidly among the population.
He told the council’s overview select committee: “Two weeks ago, we measured it at about 1 per cent of all the cases, it’s now about 54 per cent. So it will be very, very soon that the vast majority of cases will be the new Omicron variant.
“We know that it’s much more transmissible. There is lots of uncertainty about severity. It’s unknown at the moment, but the indications are that it may be similar.
“We’re hoping it will be a bit less severe, but we don’t really know at the moment. In the past few weeks we’ve started to see the overall rates go up slightly, the current rate from today is actually up to 400 cases per 100,000 people per week. Two weeks ago it was 365.
“The rate for the over-60s has actually continued to come down slightly and the rate for our school age children, while still high, has also come down somewhat.
“But the rates for the 17 to 21 and 21 to 24 year-olds have almost doubled in the last two weeks.
“The overall picture on a superficial level gives perhaps a falsely reassuring picture. We are really on the precipice of an unprecedented increase in cases that we can expect to happen in the next few weeks along with the rest of the country.”
Mr Howard said that the Christmas holiday season was likely to spread the variant into the older and more vulnerable age groups.
He said: “It looks overall that the new variant is doubling every two or three days.
“I think it will slow down because people are changing their own behaviour and are voting with their feet in terms of not going to parties and so on.
“Nevertheless, we are in this festive period where families gather together, so there are significant concerns that the high rates in the younger age population will, as we’ve seen before, eventually translate into the older, more vulnerable groups.”