Summer Covid-19 wave peaked last week, official figures show

THE latest Covid wave peaked last week, scientists believe, despite latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which suggest infections are still rising.

Data released yesterday indicate that one in 17 people (3.1 million) would have tested positive for Covid in England in the week ending July 14, an increase from one in 19 (2.7million) the previous week. However, experts warned that the figures pick up lingering infections and are not an indication of the current trend.

The Government’s coronavirus dashboard shows that daily reported new cases in the most recent wave were at 27,000 at around July 11 and have been falling ever since.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “Because people can remain positive for about 11 days after first becoming positive for Covid, the ONS data are always about two to three weeks behind the epidemic curve, as far as new infections are concerned.

“Other sources have suggested that for England the number of new infections peaked around the 8-10 July and are now in decline.

“The suggestion that new infections are indeed now falling is further supported by the fact that new hospital admissions are also now falling, though I suspect that the next couple of days’ data may be confused by increased hospital admissions during the heat wave.”

Latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show that the omicron variant BA.5 is now dominant in Britain, accounting for around 79 per cent of cases as of July 18.

UKHSA’S latest national flu and Covid-19 surveillance report indicates that the increase in case rates and hospital cases continues to show signs of slowing and the number of outbreaks has fallen since last week.

However, public health officials continue to advise older people to get vaccinated, because cases are still high.

Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, deputy director of public health programmes at UKHSA, said: “There is no room to be complacent and people aged 75 and over remain at particular risk of severe disease if they are not up to date with their vaccinations. We urge all those eligible for a booster to take it up.”