Omicron variants drive summer increases

Direct link to Africa videos, https://www.youtube.com/c/WefwafwaAndrew (Subscribing to Wefwafwa’s channel will help this work) And Ben’s latest update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrcbQiAbBtQ Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5 Growth advantage, good at evading the immune system UK ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19/latestinsights 2.07% in England (1 in 50 people) 2.13% in Wales (1 in 45 people) 2.34% in Northern Ireland (1 in 45 people) 3.36% in Scotland (1 in 30 people) Risk of re-infection Seven times higher with Omicron (20 December 2021 onwards) Compared with Delta (17 May to 19 December 2021). BMJ, Covid-19: Omicron sub variants driving new wave of infections in UK https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1506 Start of a new wave of covid infections, BA.4 and BA.5. Covid infections up 43% week on week Independent Sage, Kit Yates, University of Bath It is pretty much official from the latest ONS data that the UK has entered the next wave of covid. It is most concerning to see that there has been an increase in covid infections in older age groups Hospital admissions, England Up 31% week on week Beds occupied, 5,008 1st June, 3,800 Deepti Gurdasani, William Harvey Research Institute This is our second wave in six months, and infection has remained very high even between waves. It’s hard to predict how large the wave will be Steve Powis, NHS England medical director Expects fewer admissions than previous two 2022 surges We are likely to see a bit of an increase over the next few weeks South Africa BA.4 and BA.5 wave has now passe, with fewer hospital admissions and deaths than BA.1 wave in December. Portugal BA.5 is now dominant but their wave has just peaked United States US, past 2 weeks Cases, down 15% Deaths, down 11% Hospitalized, up 2% 100,000 cases announced each day in the U.S. (flat for the month of June) South and West, cases and hospitalizations increasing, Arkansas, Kentucky, Wyoming More than 30,000 people hospitalized, up a little on the month Fewer than 350 deaths being reported each day (2,600 a day at the height of Omicron surge) Mr Biden https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/22/world/covid-19-mandates-vaccine-cases?campaign_id=185&emc=edit_yct_20220622&instance_id=64705&nl=coronavirus-tracker&regi_id=110300449&segment_id=96440&te=1&user_id=0b87b8c1eea981ec0514047bbfa553ca#nyc-kids-vaccines Meets 17 families and their children (under 5) monumental step forward in the nation’s pandemic response. This is no time for politics. It’s about parents being able to do everything they can to keep their children safe Finally, some peace of mind Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices