London, Europe Brief News – As numbers admitted to hospital rise again, UK scientists called to extend fourth vaccination beyond the over-75s.
Ministers should consider extending the plan to give a fourth dose of Covid vaccines to older people because of evidence of waning immunity, scientists say.
The number of people admitted to hospital with Covid began rising last week. On 9 March, local authorities declared 1,521 in England – the highest number since the end of January.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that one in 25 people, or 3.8% of England’s population infected on 5 March. Research by the React-1 study indicated that cases are rising in those aged 55 and over.
Scientists say the rise is because the BA.2 version of Omicron is more transmissible. More people are mixing socially and the effectiveness of booster vaccines is starting to wane.
Sajid Javid, England’s health secretary, announced last month that immunocompromised people, care home residents and anyone aged at least 75 would receive a fourth dose of a vaccine in April, after advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
75,000 new deaths
About 75,000 Covid deaths were reported worldwide last week, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) said.
The number of new Covid cases worldwide has dropped by 19 percent in the past week. However, the recorded deaths remain stable, the WHO added.
“Over 16 million cases and 75,000 new deaths were reported globally during the week of February 7 to February 13.”
Russia has witnessed the biggest number of new COVID-19 cases. Cases there and elsewhere in Eastern Europe doubled in recent weeks, driven by a surge of the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths rose by 38% in the Eastern Mediterranean region and by about one-third in the Western Pacific, according to the WHO.
WHO said that all other coronavirus variants continue to decline globally as Omicron crowds them out.
Among the more than 400,000 Covid virus sequences uploaded to the world’s biggest virus database in the last week. More than 98 percent were Omicron.
