Top doc warns of new wave of coronavirus
THE UK is heading into another wave of coronavirus as concerns grow over rising infection rates, Wales’ top medical expert believes.
But Dr Frank Atherton is “hopeful” further draconian restrictions will not need to be imposed.
It came as latest figures revealed that Covid-19 infections rose in all four nations of the UK, with the increase likely to be driven by the Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is also showing signs of an upwards trend, suggesting the virus is once again becoming more prevalent across the country, said the figures, released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Wales has seen infections rise to 64,800 people, or one in 45, up from 40,500, or one in 75.
In England, 1.1 million people were estimated to be infected – the equivalent of around one in 50. This is up week-on-week from 797,500, or one in 70. And in Scotland, where the virus is estimated to be the most prevalent, 176,900 people were estimated to have tested positive last week, or one in 30, up from 124,100, or one in 40.
Total infections are now back at levels last seen at the start of May, but remain well below the record 4.9 million at the peak of the Omicron BA.2 wave at the end of March.
Dr Atherton said yesterday morning that the figures in Wales are “creeping up” and they were looking closely at rising infection rates in Portugal, after remaining low for several weeks and significant fall in rates.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, he said: “That tide seems to have turned as it has many times. There are new sub-variants of the Omicron lineage which we’re seeing across Europe in places like Portugal.
“We have seen a slight increase recently in the NHS with people coming in for treatment with coronavirus. Having said that I’m still optimistic that the vaccine programme and the vaccines which have been so successful will help to have weakened the link between community transmission and the direct harms.”
He added: “I suspect we are moving into a further wave. And I’m very hopeful, though, that we will not need to reimpose some of those rather more draconian measures. But it just highlights the fact that we’re probably going to go through cycles of this.
“It’s like a rubber ball and keeps on bouncing back. And this is going to continue to happen. And so we need to be willing and ready as communities to put in place our own measures was not through legislation.”
Dr Atherton said that people should use what they have learned through the pandemic, and maintain social distancing, wearing face masks and self- isolating if they suffer from any respiratory symptoms.
He said: “I think that needs to be embedded in the way we live as society in the future.
“I would anticipate, you know, cycles every few months or every three to five weeks. That’s all assuming that nothing you know, nasty comes out of the woodwork.
“We always knew that this virus continues to evolve. And our great hope, of course, is that it doesn’t evolve into something which can evade us and can lead to another huge spike.
“That’s always something we need to guard against. We need to have better surveillance and we are working to build that up here in Wales.
“But my expectation is that there will be further waves, but hopefully not bringing as much harm as well.”
The latest ONS figures revealed a total of 1.4 million people in private households are estimated to have had the virus last week, up 43% from 989,800 the previous week.
The ONS said the latest increase was “likely caused by infections compatible with Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5”, which are now thought to be the most dominant variants in much of the UK.
BA.4 and BA.5 are newer strains of coronavirus that were recently classified as “variants of concern”, after analysis found both were likely to have a “growth advantage” over BA.2.