It has been another week, and new UK data are out. This is an update on where we are with the main viral infections.
TL&DR: Good news: RSV wave turned out to be smaller than anticipated and hopefully is on the decline. Bad news: Flu is on the rise. Covid cases continue to go up in the “winter” wave. The attention is shifting to Strep-A and Scarlet fever (about which a separate blog post after Christmas).
The outlook published in my The Conversation article seems to still hold, although I probably underestimated the speed at which the outbreak in China is progressing. Thank you again @Phoebe_Roth for your support.
RSV
A few weeks ago, there was a lot of concern about the RSV outbreak. The overall numbers appeared high, but it was hospitalisation that drew a lot of attention.
The actual hospital admission rate turned out to be lower than in the pre-pandemic years, and it now seems to decline. The positivity – the indication of how many infections there are in the population – is declining in the two mostly-affected classes, 0-4 yo and 5-14 yo. We are not out of the woods yet, but unlike in 2021, the outbreak seems to be back to “normal”.
Influenza
I was looking at data last week (see below, left figure) and considering how closely the positivity in 2022 matched the 2019-20 season. I did not provide an update last week but I thought that the next week would be critical in establishing how bad the season was going to be.
The week 49 positivity has been revised upwards, and week 50 brought even higher numbers. The number of positive samples has also been revised upwards, and it does look like we are for a record-breaking flu season this year.
Covid
Covid case numbers and hospitalisation rates are both increasing, as expected.
I still think the wave will not be a big one, although in terms of deaths, it could be as bad as the one in late Spring and early Summer of 2022. The IHME predictions seem to agree with this scenario, although they do not have a stellar record of predicting England’s data.
I have so far been over-pessimistic in my Covid predictions and indeed thought the Autumn/Winter wave would be larger. But I am now cautiously optimistic; I think there is enough immunity (infection- and vaccination-driven) in the population to keep the Covid infections ticking but not erupting.
Essentially, omicron is now “mopping up” those who have lost immunity, and the cycles are triggered by increases in contacts – schools and holidays. Unless we get another particularly nasty variant – and it does not seem so at the moment – we will continue with this pattern for months if not years.
English data are now published weekly so the graphs above are for up to week 50. Scotland still publishes daily data; the current wave seemed to be slow in starting north of the border, but it is clear now, particularly in 65 year olds and older. These are cases and so difficult to interpret.
Strep-A and Scarlet fever
The public attention is now shifting to a Strep-A and Scarlet Fever outbreak which is particularly bad this year. This will be the topic of my next post, but it will now need to wait until after Christmas.
This is my last post before a break for the holidays. I want to wish you, my esteemed readers, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May this festive period bring you peace, joy and rest.