New coronavirus in/from China

[Catweazle]

That's shocking. I see that some comments refer to the supposed "mildness" of latest variants being false, writing that lower mortality rates are in fact due to immunity through vaccine rather than any property of Delta and Omicron.

[Stumuz2]

So it looks like the UK's very high vaccination rate and early rollout, was a lifesaver.

[PS_RalphW]

Infection rates explode to new records. BA.2 has just about replaced BA.1 across the country. Hospitalisation rates are rising close to the levels where there will be significant impacts on the NHS. Death rates up 26% on the week, over 900 . New variants (Deltacron is one) remain at very low levels.

50% of the under 20s are showing antibodies to infection, but only one in 6 of the over 70s. Omicron could keep growing for a few weeks yet before summer and natural infection levels cause it to peak. Natural immunity from infection seems to last a few months, so it will be back by october, if not before.

[Catweazle]

So it looks like the UK's very high vaccination rate and early rollout, was a lifesaver.

Some will argue that it could have been done earlier, but overall it looks like a pretty good job given the uncertainties. Hopefully the lessons learned will enable future boosters to get out quickly.

[mr brightside]

My workplace today informed us all that it's ok to come to work if you've had a positive test.... Apparently there have been some updated guidelines issued from Gov or something. So it looks like TPTB have downgraded covid from a lethal superbug requiring 10 days of isolation, multiple tests and the like, to the same level as the common cold. No consistency in the approach.

[Default0ptions]

I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Covid. We’re all well vaccinated and boosted here in the UK - but I don’t think we’re yet updating the vaccine for new likely variants, as we do with the flu jab.

I think we might be getting a bit complacent about Covid.

[clv101]

I think we might be getting a bit complacent about Covid.

Ha, you don't say!?

[PS_RalphW]

Cases have leveled out at about 350,000 a day, but are still rising in the over 55s, and deaths are rising to about 800 a week. Some of these are with covid, not of covid, but the most recent analysis I saw said 70% of covid.

A new recombination of Ba1 and ba2 omicron called XE has appeared at liw levels in the UK and is estimated to be 10% more infectious than ba2. It is not clear what impact this will have on vaccinated or previously infected.

The REACT study has now been shut down, so that source of data has ended. The NHS has finally updated its list of symptoms for covid to that provided by the Zoe study 2 YEARS ago. Not sure why they did that now, presumably because they no longer give free lateral flow tests, and so do not fear being swamped with test requests. The news has been entirely ignored by most of the media, and I think the public reaction would be to ignore it anyway.

[PS_RalphW]

Reported daily infections from ZOE have fallen below 300,000. Hospital admissions have levelled off.

The new XE variant is now 1% of cases, with a small transmission advantage over BA.2
Incidence of deep vein thrombosis and other circulatory diseases have fallen back to long term averages, suggesting Omicron variants are less damaging to blood vessels than delta.

Another Omicron variant, BA.5 appears to be spreading out of South Africa. Currently very low levels.

[UndercoverElephant]

So...grandma has covid, and it looks like my wife and daughter have caught it from her - though we can't test it because we can't actually get hold of test kits. Grandma tested positive on Tuesday evening, wife and daughter showed symptoms on Friday having returned from grandma's on Wednesday morning. I didn't visit grandma, so I'm 2 to 3 days behind them, but right now I have no definite symptoms. Maybe a very slight sore throat, but at this point I wonder whether I am imagining it. Also we've been sleeping in different bedrooms to keep down the viral dose I'm exposed to, so that might have helped. And I wouldn't be surprised if I've actually already had it before.

Either way I am not losing any sleep over it. It's just another respiratory infection as far as I am concerned.

[clv101]

Your family's done will to avoid so long, we got it last autumn. Hopefully mild and rapidly recovered.

[PS_RalphW]

Although we are still in pandemic, we may at last be approaching the end of serious disease. The US has had such high levels of omicron Ba1 infection (45% of the population estimated) that Ba2 cannot get going due to natural immunity from Ba1. They paid for it with much higher death rates from massive under testing and under reporting, but they now seem to be cloee to endemic status, and we may not be far behind.

Always with the proviso that no new more dangerous variant evolves, but such a variant would struggle to get a foothold against the levels of immunity in the population, and it would be very unlucky for a more deadly and also yet more infectious variant to emerge at this stage

[kenneal - lagger]

........
Either way I am not losing any sleep over it. It's just another respiratory infection as far as I am concerned.

It is now but it wasn't a year ago. I'm well pleased that my family and I didn't get it then.

[Vortex2]

>> it would be very unlucky for a more deadly and also yet more infectious variant to emerge at this stage

Those two attributes are not connected.

[BritDownUnder]

Looks like the virus is out in Shanghai for the first time, lockdown etc. 25,000 cases with people shouting from the windows (some commentators said screaming but I am not so sure). Also a government drone flew over apparently saying that people should not elevate their emotions and stop singing and close their windows.
I have to wonder why the Chinese are so for eliminating Covid. Maybe they know something about the lasting effects and don't want it in China.