BA.4 increases with optimism

(and BA.5) UK, infections increasing https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare Uptick in Covid hospital admissions in England 33% on the week Increases will continue for weeks (2 or 3) Caused by omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5 Spreading more readily than BA.2 Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19/latestinsights Early signs of a possible increase in COVID-19 infections in England and Northern Ireland Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, in the ascendancy Taken over from Omicron BA.2 Taken over from Omicron BA.1 Taken over from Delta Taken over from Alpha Taken over from Wuhan original strain Omicron wave hospital patients 19% caught the virus in hospital, https://twitter.com/AdeleGroyer/status/1534817326637502464 BA.4 and BA.5 variants emerged in South Africa Both evade immunity from vaccination or infection UK crossover point, (BA.4 and BA.5 over half of cases) Jubilee weekend (2nd to 4th June) South Africa https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/daily-hospital-surveillance-datcov-report/ BA.4 and BA.5 variants had already swept through South Africa, no major problems Despite multiple reinfections, Deaths in South Africa were only around a tenth of the peak during previous waves Previous immunity has not protected against BA.4 and BA.5 infections Reinfections will increase immunity Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections as Compared with Primary Infections https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2108120 December 2021 Qatar national cohort of 353,326 N = 1,304 reinfections Reinfections were rare and were generally mild (Risk of re-infection, x8 in omicron times compared to delta times) Reinfections had 90% lower odds of resulting in hospitalization or death than primary infections. US data https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices