A new surge in the spread of coronavirus infection may occur in the fall. This assumption on Sunday, March 14, said the head of the British National Office of Statistics (ONS) Ian Diamond.
“I have no doubt that in the fall we will see a new wave of infections,” he said on the BBC TV channel.
According to the specialist, in order to form forecasts for the next wave of COVID-19, it is important to understand the effectiveness of the vaccines used.
“We have to admit that we are talking about a virus that will not go anywhere,” said Diamond.
On March 4, a new strain of coronavirus infection was identified in the UK. This variant of COVID-19 has been reported to have a common mutation with the South African and Brazilian variants. At that time, 16 cases were known, they were isolated, and their social contacts are being monitored.
The British variant of coronavirus B.1.1.7, detected in the country in the fall of 2020, turned out to be twice as deadly as previous variants of the infection. This was announced on March 10 by British scientists, conducting a corresponding study. In December 2020, it turned out that this strain of the virus is 70% more infectious than other varieties of SARS-CoV-2.
According to the Worldometer portal, 4,253,820 cases of coronavirus have been registered in the UK for the entire time of the pandemic. 3,424,092 patients fully recovered, 125,464 people died.