An Imperial College London survey showed that the Omicron subvariant BA.2 now dominates the Covid-19 infection prevalence in England, with cases continuing to rise in the over-55s at the end of March.
Boris Johnson, the premier of England, has lifted all Covid-19 restrictions after a wave of Omicron infections last year saw record numbers, but did not result in a similar wave of deaths among Britain’s highly vaccinated citizenry.
According to Imperial’s study, the number of infections peaked in March at levels higher than those of the BA.1 Omicron outbreak in January, supporting Office for National Statistics (ONS) findings that an all-time high has been reached.
According to the Imperial REACT-1 study, cases had leveled off among the under-55s by mid-March, but they remained high among the over-55s.
Imperial epidemiologist Christl Donnelly told reporters that we don’t yet know when the highest incidence will occur among the oldest age group, those 55+.
According to Imperial, the overall prevalence grew from 4.41 percent in January to 6.37 percent between March 8 and 31. That rate is about 1 in 15 people.
Nearly 95 percent of the sequenced samples in the study belonged to Omicron subvariant BA.2. The UK Health Security Agency has determined that BA.2 has a greater chance of being hospitalized than BA.1.
