© REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Prior to the vaccine roll-out and the Omicron wave, figures showed that Covid was more deadly the flu.
At the end of December, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) for Covid was around 0.3 per cent or one death in 333 cases, whereas the death rate for flu sits between one death in 1,000 and one fatality in 500, or between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent.
Previously in May 2020, the Covid case death rate culminated to as high as 15 per cent, accounting for one death in six cases.
However, millions of Omicron infection cases have turned into fewer death in the last few weeks.
It is very possible that, despite millions of Covid cases in December and January, winter mortality this year will not even come to a bad flu year.
As of February 2, there were 112,458 cases of Covid-19 reported in the UK, the Government said.
This figure includes reinfections in England and Northern Ireland that are more than 90 days after a previous positive test.
The total is based on positive lab-confirmed PCR tests in all four nations of the UK, plus most positive lateral flow tests reported in England and all lateral flow tests reported in Northern Ireland.
The Government also said a further 219 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 156,875.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 180,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
A total of 180,662 deaths have occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, the ONS said.
The highest number on a single day was 1,485 on January 19 2021.
During the first wave of the virus, the daily toll peaked at 1,461 on April 8 2020.
This is up 7% on the previous seven days, and is the highest number since 1,501 deaths in the week to March 12 2021.
Around one in nine (11.6%) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to January 21 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
A total of 1,484 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending January 21 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
A total of 26 cases of the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron have been confirmed in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has said, though this number is likely to be an underestimate.
BA.2 was recently declared a variant under investigation.
The First Minister told MSPs: "Genomic sequencing is being used to investigate this further.
"So far, I can confirm that in Scotland, 26 cases of BA.2 have been confirmed through genomic sequencing but we expect this number to increase as more sequencing results are reported.
"And given that not all tests are genomically sequenced, it will be an underestimate of the presence of this sub-variant here."
She said there was no evidence that BA.2 led to more serious illness or had a greater chance of escaping immunity, however it appeared to be able to "out-run" Omicron.
Reader Comments