Third distinct omicron wave

Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 variants: technical briefings

https://www.gov.uk/government/....publications/investi

BA.5 growing 35.1% faster than Omicron subvariant BA.2

BA.5 growing 19.1% faster than Omicron subvariant BA.2

US

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-da....ta-tracker/#new-hosp

Increase in hospital patients, probably our best proxy

Or test positivity, (14%)

UK hospital data

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk

https://www.nytimes.com/intera....ctive/2021/us/covid-

Australia

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/ar....ticle/the-ba-5-omicr

Professor Adrian Esterman, University of South Australia

Basically of those subvariants ... are all in Australia at the moment and will be competing against each other

At the moment BA.2 is the majority of cases in Australia, but BA.5 is starting to take over

Australian Influenza Surveillance Report and Activity Updates – 2022

https://www1.health.gov.au/int....ernet/main/publishin

147,155 official notifications

55,101 in the last 2 weeks

Influenza A, 83.4%

H1N1, 0.8%

A and B coinfections, less than 0.1%

Highest notification rates in children

Zoe data

https://health-study.joinzoe.com/data

New covid wave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWrU0lF0CF8

Cases, + 225,464

Up 40% on the week

Prevalence, one in 27

Scotland, one in 18

UK R = 1.1

BA.5 surge

Similar transmissibility as BA.2

Immune escape

More reinfections, from this year and last

No increase in deaths, a little down on the week

Hospitalisations, up 33% on the week

Individual risk is less

Increases in all age groups

Increases in all regions

Long covid

New cases, + 3,851 (more than 3 months)

Omicron, less likelihood of LC compared to delta infection

More cases overall due to sheer numbers of infections

Risk of getting LC with BA.1

One in 23 infections (more than a month)

ONS data

UK, 1.7 million infections last week

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep....opulationandcommunit

1,360,600 (1 in 40 people) in England

68,500 (1 in 45 people) in Wales

59,900 (1 in 30 people) in Northern Ireland

250,700 (1 in 20 people) in Scotland

London, 25 to 34 year olds

Antibodies, January to February 2022

Secondary school pupils 96.6%

Primary school pupils 62.4%

Dr. Rochelle Walensky

(moderna)

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/24/world/covid-19-mandates-vaccine-cases?campaign_id=185&emc=edit_yct_20220624&instance_id=64890&nl=coronavirus-tracker®i_id=110300449&segment_id=96655&te=1&user_id=0b87b8c1eea981ec0514047bbfa553ca#cdc-moderna-covid-vaccine-ages-6-17

recommending a second safe and effective vaccine for children ages 6 through 17 years