Latest COVID 🦠 #851

▫ From Friday 1 July 2022, the COVID-19 UKHSA Dashboard moves to weekly reporting.
▫ The reporting of ZOE COVID Study data will remain daily.
▫ The reporting of ONS Infection Survey data will remain weekly with a 7-day lag.

After two years without updating its list of just three symptoms of COVID-19 (a high temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste), the NHS has finally updated its list of symptoms of COVID:

😩 Shortness of breath
🥱 Feeling tired or exhausted
🤕 An aching body
🤯 A headache
🤐 A sore throat
🤧 A blocked or runny nose
😞 Loss of appetite
🥴 Diarrhoea
🤮 Feeling sick or being sick

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is reminding people to ensure their COVID-19 vaccinations are up to date and to continue following COVID-safe behaviours, as latest technical data indicates BA.4 and BA.5 have become dominant in the UK and are driving the recent increase in infections.

COVID-19 has not gone away, so it is also vitally important that people continue to follow the guidance. Stay at home if you have any respiratory symptoms or a fever and limit contact with others until you are feeling better, particularly if they are likely to be at greater risk if they contract COVID-19.

UKHSA encourage everyone to continue to follow the most up-to date guidance.

There are simple things you can do in your daily life that will help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections and protect those at highest risk. Things you can choose to do are:

• get vaccinated
• let fresh air in if meeting others indoors
• practise good hygiene:
  - wash your hands
  - cover your coughs and sneezes
  - clean your surroundings frequently
  - wear a face covering or a face mask, particularly if you are in crowded and enclosed spaces

Check out the latest situation for 20 of the top travel destinations for Brits:

• Money Saving Expert

In the UK, there were 346 deaths involving COVID-19 registered in the week ending 24 June 2022, an increase from 309 in the previous week. This accounted for 2.8% of all deaths in the latest week; an increase from 2.5% in the previous week.

There were 12,278 total deaths registered in the UK in the latest week, which is 15.9% above the five-year average.

In England, the number of deaths involving COVID-19 increased from 246 in the previous week to 270 in the latest week (ending 24 June 2022).

Deaths involving COVID-19 increased in groups aged 55 years and over and decreased in those aged 45 to 54 years. Deaths remained similar in groups aged under 45 years. The number of deaths involving COVID-19 increased in five out of nine English regions.

[Read more...]

Results from a project funded by ONS, led by Sarah Rhodes (University of Manchester), has found rates of self-reported long-COVID were highest in the education sector between April 2020 to January 2022.

This analysis used a different methodology to existing ONS outputs and results cannot be compared.

Long-COVID rates varied by occupation, with the education, police and protective services, personal care and social care sectors seeing the highest rates. The research adjusted for factors such as age and sex.

The research also investigated whether vaccination uptake accounted for differences in COVID-19 infection rates between occupations. The proportion of people who had received two vaccinations by 31 January 2022 varied by occupation: 9% of workers in the food processing sector were not double vaccinated, compared with 4% of office-based healthcare workers.

However, these differences in vaccination uptake did not explain all the differences in infection rates between occupations. The only exception was among manual workers, where low vaccination uptake did appear to explain the increased relative risks of infection.

[Read more...]

There were 309 deaths registered in the UK involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in the week ending 17 June 2022, which is slightly fewer than the previous week. This accounted for around 1 in every 40 deaths (2.5%).

There were 12,320 total deaths registered in the UK in the latest week, which is 15.3% above the five-year average.

In England and Wales, the number of deaths in the week to 17 June was above the five-year average in private homes, hospitals and care homes, but slightly below in other settings.

[Read more...]

• What causes long COVID? Canadian researchers think they’ve found a key clue | Global News
• Faster Progress Is Needed on Treatments for Long Covid | Bloomberg
• Long COVID Can Hit Kids, Even Babies | HealthDay
• Almost 1 in 20 older pupils have had long COVID | ONS
• As the pandemic ebbs, long-haul Covid still drains patients and confounds doctors | The Guardian
• Long COVID found in 20% of US cases — CDC
• Is Omicron Creating More Cases of Long Covid? — Bloomberg
• Long Covid can lead to trauma and depression — Sunday Times