COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 2nd August 2024
The UK's JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) have announced who will get COVID boosters this Autumn. They haven't expanded the list to include all children, nor do they include people who live or work with vulnerable people, but they have expanded the age range for older people. Folk in the following categories will be sent an invitation to book later in the year:
- Adults aged 65 or over
- Residents in a care home for older adults
- Individuals aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group (huge list, available online).
The UK currently has high levels of COVID, and we aren't alone. Earlier Greece was warning tourists about a surge which has seen masks return to some hospitals, and travel advisories from neighbouring countries.
The FLIRT variants are being blamed. They actually appear to hospitalise slightly less people, but they can creep around some of our immunity, so more people are catching them, with a knock on effect that hospitals are still seeing more COVID patients.
Latest hospital figures for England show a peak in COVID admissions almost as high as last Winter or Autumn's peaks, and Scotland's wastewater monitoring shows the highest levels since early 2022.
Prof Christina Pagel of indieSAGE reminds us one negative test doesn't mean you don’t have COVID, test again over consecutive days to confirm:
"Basically, there is a LOT of Covid around and not a lot of other respiratory viruses.
If you have cold or flu symptoms, it's probably Covid."
