The NHS could still be under huge pressure despite the possibility that the Omicron variant may cause milder disease, a leading UK scientist has said.
Professor Paul Elliott, public health medicine expert at Imperial College, London, warned “there are many many cases and sadly some of those people may get severe illness and end up in hospital.”
Professor Elliott described it as “encouraging news” that perhaps the infection when you get it might be less severe in terms of hospital cases, but he added: “Of course, with this very rapid rise and increase in cases – and we have seen the national cases go above 100,000 – then more cases means more pressure on the health service.
“Even though a smaller proportion (of people) might get severe disease or go into hospital, that could still result in many cases and, of course, that could give pressure on the health service.”
Professor Paul Elliott said the nation is enduring “unprecedented levels of infection”.
He told Sky News: “From the beginning of December we saw this very dramatic rise in prevalence across the country, but particularly across London with the R number now substantially above one.
“This exponential increase in infections is absolutely being driven by the Omicron variant.”
But Elliot, the chair in epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial College London, said he was cautiously optimistic because of the success of the vaccine roll-out.
He said: “To be honest, we were really quite positive about the rollout of the vaccine programme which has been a fantastic success.
“We are seeing that in our data not only in the secondary school aged children but in older people aged over 65, we are seeing a real drop in that age group, reflecting the booster programme when most of those people have had a booster.
“It was really looking promising. Now we have got this variant and this very very sharp rise in infections, so for the time being I would say we would have to be a bit cautious and we have to pay attention to the public health messages and wear our masks.”
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