By Third wave ‘definitely under way’ in England, says expert
A scientist who advises the government says a third wave of coronavirus “is definitely under way” in England.
Professor Adam Finn, who is a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told the BBC “the race is firmly on between the vaccine programme… and the Delta variant third wave”.
Acknowledging the significant increase in infections, he tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Perhaps we can be a little bit optimistic it’s not going up any faster, but nevertheless it’s going up – so this third wave is definitely under way.”
Asked about the possible vaccination of children over 12, Prof Finn says immunising children “wouldn’t be appropriate right now, either here or anywhere else in Europe”.
“It’s adults that get sick, so vaccinating adults is clearly the priority right now.”
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UK Covid infections rise as Delta variant dominates
The Office for National Statistics figures, up to 12 June, suggest one in every 540 people is infected.
Dr Mike Tildesley, epidemiologist, says he is “cautiously hopeful” the number of hospital admissions for Covid over the next few weeks will not be on the same scale as in January.
The epidemiologist, and member of the SPI-M modelling group, says cases have been “creeping steadily” over the past month “but we haven’t yet seen that reflected in hospital admissions and deaths”.
“Hospital admissions are starting to rise a little bit,” he tells BBC Breakfast, adding there is always a lag between infections and admissions, but he stresses the vaccination campaign “is doing very, very well”.
“I’m cautiously hopeful that whilst we probably will expect some sort of wave of hospital admissions over the next few weeks, it won’t be the same scale that we saw back in January.”
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