The U.K.’s Covid outbreak has receded on all fronts again, with hospitalisations down nearly a fifth in a week and deaths a third lower. MailOnline has more.
Today’s Government dashboard update shows a total of 1,609 people infected with Covid were admitted to hospitals on Friday, the latest date with data, 18% lower than the previous week.
The figure has been trending downwards for more than two weeks after an uptick triggered calls from NHS leaders to reintroduce face masks and outdoor mixing.
Another 508 Covid fatalities were registered today — down by 31% in a week.
There were also 26,147 positive swabs over the last 24 hours — the lowest figure in two months and a quarter fewer than last week.
But experts say the daily counts are now “completely irrelevant” because free tests have been scrapped for the vast majority of people.
It comes as U.K. health bosses today confirmed five cases of BA.2.12.1, which is thought to be the most contagious version of Omicron yet, have been detected in the U.K. The sub-strain already makes up a fifth of cases in the U.S., in a sign of what could come in Britain.
Little is known about the new version of the virus, though it is believed to have an up to 27% growth advantage over BA.2, which was behind the latest surge in UK cases and is itself a subvariant of Omicron.
However, top scientists insist there is no evidence that BA.2.12.1 is more severe than its mild predecessor. And British experts told MailOnline they are not concerned by its emergence because of the U.K.’s high levels of immunity following the recent domestic surge.
UKHSA data shows that 20,767 people in England tested positive for Covid, while Scotland logged 3,976 positive swabs, Wales detected 816 cases and Northern Ireland logged 588 infections.
The 26,147 total UK-wide figure is 27.2% lower than the 35,926 cases detected on the same day last week.
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