The possibility of another wave of COVID-19 infections is gaining ground in the United States and Britain as a surge in cases is being reported.
In the UK, vulnerable sections of the population have been asked to start using face masks and vaccinations have been accelerated.
While across the Atlantic in the United States, strict vigil is being observed on the rise in cases as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) monitors the new COVID-19 variant which has been designated as LB.1. It is important to note that the viral outbreak has largely been unnoticed for the last two years.
A summer COVID wave?
According to The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), almost one in every 25,000 British citizens were infected by COVID-19 on June 26.
According to a news report by the BBC, the rise in infections is statistically far lower as compared to March 2020, when the pandemic was reported in the UK for the first time.
“This may sound a lot but it is a tiny number compared with what we saw at the start of the pandemic. In March 2020, it was one in 13,” the report noted.
For the past two years, the experts studying the mutations in COVID-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus have recorded a set of new strains which they collectively designate as FLiRT. The FLiRT variants refer to a group of variants — including the ones that start with the letters ‘KP’or ‘JN’ — that have acquired the same set of mutations.
These FLiRT strains are actually the sub-variants of the Omicron variant. They account for more than 60 per cent of COVID cases in the US. In March, these variants accounted for only five per cent of the American population.
Talking about the severity of the outbreak, Paul Hunter, a British epidemiology expert told BBC that he did not believe that the current COVID-19 infection rates were concerning.
“I think we’re probably seeing about as much infection this year as we were seeing last year — a little bit less, but not hugely less,” the expert was quoted.
He believes that generally, we are seeing far fewer deaths and far fewer hospitalisations from Covid than last year.
Getting prepared
In the UK, those with a compromised immune system or those aged 75 years and above have been asked to get vaccinated against the virus.
Also, across the health centres in the US and the UK, masks are getting mandatory with some hospitals getting ready to return to the safety regime as observed during the two years of the pandemic.
What has troubled health experts in the US is the confluence of the rise in the COVID-19 infections with bird flu.
According to American journalist Amy Maxmen, the bird flu situation in the US is far from ideal.
“It’s been nearly three months since the US government announced an outbreak of the bird flu virus on dairy farms. The World Health Organization considers the virus a public health concern because of its potential to cause a pandemic, yet the US has tested only about 45 people across the country,” she wrote in an opinion piece.
In the same write-up, Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health was quoted:
“We’re flying blind… With so few tests run, she said, it’s impossible to know how many farmworkers have been infected, or how serious the disease is. A lack of testing means the country might not notice if the virus begins to spread between people — the gateway to another pandemic.”