One in every 20 people contracted Covid over the Christmas holidays, say experts.
Cases are estimated to double in December, when the XBB.1.5 “Kraken” variant began sweeping the UK. Analysts say nearly three million people had the virus during the holiday week, mirroring the level of the summer, when experts called for the return of pandemic-era restrictions such as masks.
Experts fear the strain, believed to be the most contagious yet, is accelerating the UK’s winter surge and will weigh further on the ailing NHS in the coming weeks.
The ailing health care system is already being hit by the worst flu outbreak in a decade. Winter pressure has prompted fresh calls for action to protect the NHS for returns.
Cases are estimated to double in December, when the XBB.1.5 “Kraken” variant began sweeping the UK. Analysts say nearly three million people had the virus during the holiday week
The alarming estimate comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which is tracking the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom.
Predictions are based on random testing of thousands of people providing analyst data to scale on a national basis.
Today’s ONS update, the first since the Christmas break, covers the week ending December 28.
The chart shows weekly hospital admissions per 100,000 people for Covid (red) and flu (blue). Surveillance figures from Britain’s Health Safety Agency showed that Covid admissions fell from 12 to 11 per 100,000 people, while admissions fell to 8 per 100,000 in the week ending January 1
NHS data shows an average of 995 Covid patients were admitted to hospitals across England in the week to January 2. The figures suggest that the number of people seeking NHS care due to the virus peaked on average just before Christmas and has fallen since then.
Figures from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK’s largest Covid surveillance centres, show that 4 per cent of cases in the week to December 17 were caused by XBB.1.5 (shown in purple below right).
On December 17, XBB.1.5 was listed for the first time on the institute’s weekly updated virus dashboard.
Across the UK, 2.97 million people are thought to have had the virus on any given day this week.
The number reflects incidence (how many people are infected in total) and not incidence (how many new cases occur each day).
It is estimated that around one in 20 people in England is infected.
But the rate was as high as one in 16 in Northern Ireland and one in 18 in Wales.
How dangerous is XBB.1.5? Is this already the dominant Covid strain? And are the injections still working? Everything you need to know about “the Kraken” as a new variant begins to take over Britain
A highly contagious strain of Covid has emerged, which already accounts for one in 25 cases in the UK, data suggests
According to the ONS, the incidence in Scotland was around one in 25 people.
Michelle Bowen, head of dissemination and strategy for health surveillance at the ONS, said: “Infections have increased across the UK.
Cases are the highest since July 2022 in England, Wales and Scotland and the highest since March 2022 in Northern Ireland.
“We continue to monitor the data closely.”
It comes after experts said yesterday that they thought Covid had spread over Christmas.
NHS statistics showed that virus pressure was at its peak in mid-December, when XBB-1.5 was first detected in the UK, and has since declined.
Officials acknowledged the downturn could be due to a backlog caused by delays in reporting over the holiday season.
Leading Covid expert Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said the year’s first statistics should be viewed with caution because testing may have been delayed over Christmas.
But he added: “The news at home at the moment is that Covid infections seem to be going down.”
Experts hope the tension will not lead to the re-imposition of pandemic-era restrictions, saying the UK’s rollout of the vaccine and waves of infection have eased the threat of the virus.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay dodged a question about how safe the NHS is for patients while visiting a hospital in Watford, Hertfordshire.
As part of the government’s ‘Living with Covid’ strategy, all virus restrictions – including masks, isolation and testing – were lifted early last year.
The number of flu admissions also fell in the last week of 2022.
But NHS follow-up data released today shows an average of 5,105 flu patients were in general hospital beds last week.
The number rose 47 percent in one week, nearly seven times what it was in early December. This casts doubt on the hope that the “flu”, as it is called, has died out.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay dodged a question about how safe the NHS is for patients while visiting a hospital in Watford, Hertfordshire.
He cited the effects of the pandemic and the increasing number of flu cases as the reason for the current burden on the service when visiting a virtual department.
Asked if it was disingenuous to blame Covid-19 and the flu when successive governments failed to address social care issues, he said: “I have prioritized the integration of health and social care, as have the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.”
Referring to the funding announced in the Autumn Statement, he added: “At a time when the Treasury Department is under a lot of pressure from the cost of the pandemic, the cost of war in Europe, the impact on the cost of living and energy prices the chancellor has prioritized NHS and social care.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
