The UK’s daily Covid cases and deaths remained flat today as the fourth wave continues to plateau — but hospital admissions fell for the 10th day in a row.
Another 94,326 positive tests were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to Government dashboard data, which was virtually unchanged from the figure last Tuesday.
Since the beginning of this week, infections have declined. There has been an increase in infection among primary school students and people who return to work.
There were 439 more Covid deaths registered today — up by just one on the 438 last week. This week’s average seven-day number of deaths is 263 — nearly fivefold less than the previous year.
Recent hospital data show that 1,613 Britons received Covid treatment on January 21. This is a 15% decrease from the week before.
Experts agree Omicron has passed, but the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group (SAGE), warns of an upcoming wave of infection due to the transmissible variant.
UK faces increasing cases due to an Omicron offshoot known as BA.2, thought to be more transmissible that its predecessor.
Only a handful of cases have been reported in this country of BA.2, but in the past week, the number of individuals who tested positive for the subvariant more than quadrupled.
Data from the UK’s largest Covid surveillance lab shows BA.2 was behind 0.8 per cent of all positive samples in the seven days to January 15 — up from 0.2 per cent the week prior.
The new subvariant was found in approximately 1 in 125 Covid-positive people. BA.2 infection can’t be confirmed by PCR as it is not possible to confirm the Omicron. This has led to its being called a “stealth” variant.
For comparison, the once-dominant Delta mutant strain made up only 0.5% of domestic cases last week. Delta was almost entirely pushed out following the arrival of the ultra-virulent original Omicron variant in late November, which now accounts for the vast majority of domestic cases.
Scientists suspect that BA.2 might have evolved to become slightly more transmissible then Omicron. This could lead to BA.2 becoming the UK’s most dominant Covidvirus.
BA.2 has already outperformed its predecessor strain in Denmark where it currently accounts for 45% of cases.
Even though the Scandinavian country has similar restrictions as the UK, and was hit roughly at the same time by Omicron, its daily cases nearly doubled within a week.
Scientists say BA.2 is different from Omicron by about 20 mutations. However, only a small number of these might make BA.2 more effective at resisting the effects of vaccines.
But it still carries the changes that made Omicron more transmissible — and milder — than previous strains, but it is harder to detect.
The original strain has a specific alteration — known as an ‘S’ gene dropout — which meant it could be detected through PCR tests without the need for lab analysis.
This is however not true for BA.2. But this does not mean BA.2 can’t be detected using PCR. To confirm its subvariant, additional analyses will be required.
Omicron-positive people are likely to have strong protection from this variant. Scientists in Denmark are currently investigating cases in which Omicron-positive individuals have caught BA.
Data from the Sanger Institute shows there were 300 cases of BA.2 detected in England last week, out of 38,000 samples analysed. It was 78 more than the previous week.
Infections in Delta dropped by 482 to just 179 during the same time period. Delta is also carriers the “S” gene dropout.
Brent, which had nine BA.2 infection cases, and Barnet with nine each were the areas most affected. Both are located in London.
Ex-head of Covid surveillance at Sanger Dr Jeffrey Barrett stated: “An English ‘S” gene positive test (is currently) more likely to identify BA.2 rather than Delta.
Both are less than BA.1 (the Omicron original variant)
Due to the extent of the outbreak, Britain has only been able to check around one-tenth of cases in Britain for variants. The true number of BA.2 illnesses per week might be closer than a thousand.
The increase in BA.2 patients coincides with the decline in UK’s epidemic, which has ticked up for the past two days.
Schools also returned to school earlier in the month, triggering fears that this could lead to an increase in infection rates.
Denmark is recording 6500 new cases per year, while the UK records 1,300.
Its Staten Serum Institute — which monitors the country’s Covid variants — said it had also recorded a handful of cases where someone who caught Omicron was later infected with BA.2.
The population of both countries has been boosted by 60 percent against Covid and they are conducting similar tests.
Francois Balloux from University College London said it was hard to determine if Denmark’s spiralling case were caused by BA.2 infection or if the Omicron virus had swept in.
MailOnline received the following statement from him: “The high incidence of HIV in Denmark may be due to their low level hybrid immunity (which can include vaccines combined with previous infection)”.
Professor Balloux stated that it wouldn’t surprise him if BA.2 caused another wave of cases to arise in the UK.
Globally, there have been 2,093 BA.2 cases since the distinct mutant strain was discovered in South Africa.
These have been found in over 40 countries, including Australia and the US. So far, there have been 27 US cases.