Omicron: ‘rather large’ wave of variant in UK will cause high number of deaths, leading SAGE scientist warns

Ross Lydall @RossLydall10 December 2021

Omicron is likely to cause a large number of deaths, one of the UK’s top scientists warned on Thursday.

Professor John Edmunds, a member of the SAGE panel that advises the Government, predicted that a “really rather large wave” of the variant could result in more hospitalisations and deaths.

It came as 249 more cases of Omicron were reported across the UK – taking the total to 817.

Doctors believe there are Omicron cases in every London borough, with Lewisham and Newham suspected of having most cases.

Asked during a Royal Society of Medicine webinar how the pandemic might play out over the next two years, Professor Edmunds said: “I think we are certainly not out of the woods.

“Over the next two months, we are going to see a really rather large wave of Omicron that will result in a large number of hospitalisations and unfortunately a large number of deaths. I’m pretty sure of that.”

His comments were endorsed by Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London, a member of the Government’s Nervtag advisory group.

It came as the UK Health Security Agency’s weekly flu and covid report revealed that covid infections increased last week, with the highest rates in children aged five to nine.

The South-East had the highest regional rates and the West Midlands the highest rates of covid-related hospitalisations.

The report said that 7.9 per cent of tests being returned by children aged five to 14 were giving a positive result in the most recent week, compared with a two per cent average for all people taking a test.

Professor Edmunds, an epidemiologist at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also said that lateral flow tests were much more useful than many people believed. "It’s an extremely good measure of when you are infectious to others," he said.

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