Britain may be at the start of a new wave of Covid, fuelled by new ‘FLiRT’ variants and low vaccination rates, experts say.
Hospitals have seen a quarter of cases of the virus rise in a week, driven by the more aggressive variants, known as KP.2 and KP.3, which have already caused a significant spike in cases in the US.
This is because only 4.1 million of the 7 million vulnerable people eligible for a booster shot in the spring have taken up the offer, meaning that 40 percent will not receive any additional protection.
Experts also fear that current vaccines are less effective FLiRT variants that have evolved to become more contagious and evade antibodies.
Only 60 percent of people eligible for a booster vaccine in the spring have accepted one, leaving around three million vulnerable people with reduced protection
The FLiRT variants of Covid have evolved to avoid antibodies produced by previous infection and vaccination
ONS data on Covid infections shows that more than 80 per cent of Britons suffer from a runny nose when infected. Loss of taste or smell — one of the original, telltale signs of the virus — accounts for just under a fifth of all recorded symptoms
According to Dr. Matthew Binnicker of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in the US, this is because the spike protein, the part targeted by vaccines against the Covid virus, changes significantly.
“This variant can evade the immune response more effectively than previous versions of the virus,” he said.
“If you are infected or vaccinated and you have antibodies in your body, it is possible that those antibodies do not recognize the protein on the surface of the virus.”
Dr Binnicker added that people who were last vaccinated more than six months ago have waning immunity and are more likely to show symptoms if they contract Covid.
NHS statistics show the number of people admitted to hospital with Covid rose to 3.31 per 100,000 in the week to June 16, compared to 2.67 per 100,000 the week before.
The largest group of people admitted to hospital with the virus were people aged 85 and over.
It has become difficult to know how many people nationwide have had the virus, as most routine testing has been abolished since the pandemic.
Most of the data captured today comes from laboratory tests, usually through swabs collected from people in healthcare settings.
It shows that on June 26, there were 4.37 cases of Covid per 100,000 people admitted to hospital in England – about one in every 25,000 people admitted that day.
Professor Paul Hunter, a renowned infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, pointed out that this is a small percentage compared to the peak of the pandemic.
He told the BBC that people should not be concerned about the current Covid numbers.
“I think we’re probably going to see about the same number of infections this year as we did last year,” he said.
‘We are all going to be infected with Covid repeatedly, from birth to death.
‘Overall, we have seen a significant reduction in the severity of illness associated with Covid over the last three to four years.
‘Eventually it will become one of the causes of colds. And for many people it already is.’
He added: ‘Honestly, you can’t really avoid it because it’s so common.’
FLiRT Covid variants are all descendants of Omikron, which became dominant in the UK in late 2021 and early 2022.
They all appear to have acquired the same mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to attach to humans and gain a foothold.
Some of these mutations allow the virus to infect the nose and throat more easily than other circulating variants.
Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: ‘If you have symptoms of Covid or flu, help protect others by staying at home and avoiding contact with other people, especially those who are more vulnerable.’
Professor Steve Griffin, a medical expert at the University of Leeds, said of the recent rise in cases: ‘Clearly it’s early days, but it certainly looks like we’re seeing a new wave of Covid developing.
‘If the increase in hospital admissions continues, that is of course worrying. Although we have just had a spring booster campaign for vulnerable populations, the admission was lower than in 2023 and there is a significant difference between the current vaccines and circulating viruses.’