New subvariants, known individually as KP.2 and KP.3 have seen their share of UK infections double in a fortnight
New Covid FLiRT variants spread so quickly that they are probably now the dominant strain of the virus in the UK,
And based on their trajectory, scientists expect that the new variants have exceeded the 50 per cent mark in the 11 days since the latest figures.Positivity rates from the virus through the UK Health Security Agency’s surveillance system were 7.1 per cent last week, compared to 4.6 per cent the previous week.
"I think we are the start of a Covid wave driven by the FLiRT variants which are quite likely to be at about 50 per cent of total infections now," Professor Christina Pagel, of University College London, toldHowever, any spike in infections is not expected to be anything like as big as seen in the run up to Christmas - when 2.5 million, or 4.6 per cent of the UK population had Covid - because we are heading into the summer.
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, meanwhile, thinks it "very likely" that FLiRT infections now account for the majority of UK cases.
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