Christmas Covid map shows infection rates across UK - check your area's risk
Brits can find out on a Covid map how many cases are in your area amid fears of a new dangerous wave.
A "nasty" bout of coronavirus is said to be circulating in the UK amid low levels of immunity among the population as official health statistics show that cases continue to rise.
Positive cases of the virus are currently spiking across the country, with 5,975 people testing positive in England in the seven days leading to December 9 - an increase of 38.6 per cent compared to the week before. Scientists specialising in immune systems have said Covid is still causing infections that could be worse in their symptoms than previous waves.
And people can check out how badly your area is affected on a map which shows most cases to be in the south east and central England. There are large swathes of England and Wales that have between 10 and 49 cases per 100,000 people in the seven-day period up until December 9.
The map also shows that there are fewer cases in Wales with only a few areas in the south having more than nine cases per 100,000 people. Also, patches of the southwest and the far north of England fare better.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
According to BBC News, the low antibody levels and low immunity could be one of the reasons for the more serious symptoms now. Professor Eleanor Riley, an immunologist at the University of Edinburgh, said she had her own "horrid" bout of Covid that was "much worse" than expected.
She added: "People's antibody levels against Covid are probably as low now as they have been since the vaccine was first introduced. Now, because antibodies are lower, a higher dose [of the virus] is getting through and causing a more severe bout of disease."
Covid cases are rising in the UK (PA)Professor Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, said: "The thing that made the huge difference before was the very wide and fast rollout of vaccines - even young adults managed to get vaccinated, and that made an absolutely huge difference". With fewer people being offered a booster vaccine this winter, Prof Openshaw said it's possible that a lot of people could end up having a "pretty nasty illness that is going to knock them out for several days or weeks".
"I'm also hearing of people having nasty bouts of Covid, who are otherwise young and fit," he continued. "It's a surprisingly devious virus, sometimes making people quite ill and occasionally leading to having long Covid. The viruses circulating now are pretty distant immunologically from the original virus which was used to make the early vaccines, or which last infected them. A lot of people have very little immunity to the Omicron viruses and their variants."
If you can't see the poll, click here
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has risen in recent weeks, signalling the start of a possible winter jump in infections. Admission of patients testing positive for coronavirus stood at 3.8 per 100,000 people in the week to December 10, up from 3.0 the previous week and 2.5 a fortnight ago, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
At this point in 2022, the rate stood at 6.6 per 100,000, up from 5.5 the previous week and on its way to a peak of 11.4 in the run-up to Christmas. An average of 2,761 people who tested positive for Covid-19 were in hospital in England each day last week, up from 2,343 the previous week but less than half the number at this point last year (5,650).
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
