Covid-19 infections in the UK have jumped by nearly 800,000 in a week, with some parts of the country approaching the record levels seen in the spring.
The number of hospitalizations also continues to rise, driven by the spread of the latest omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the coronavirus.
A total of 3.5 million people in private households are thought to have had Covid-19 last week, up 29 per cent from 2.7 million the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is the highest estimate for the total number of infections since mid-April, but is still below the record of 4.9 million seen at the peak of the omicron BA.2 wave in late March.
The rapidly rising number of cases in the current wave is causing strain on the NHS as some people “still do not respond properly to vaccines”, a health expert has warned.
Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds, told the BBC that the NHS was “under stress” as immunity began to wane from the initial vaccine and that omicron was also “extremely good” at avoiding immunity provided by antibodies .
“It’s a complex picture and the different variants have developed their transmissibility and gravity,” he told the Today programme.
“I think we can see that in the UK the NHS is under stress with ambulance waiting times and things like that. This wave of the virus is not helping, it is still causing hospitalizations and deaths.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a perfectly protected population. Many people still do not respond properly to vaccines, our protection is waning, and there does not seem to be a long-term plan for these vaccines.”
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