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Highly infectious 'New York' Covid variant spikes in Scotland with 'new wave' fears

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorKris Gourlay
Published date22 June 2022
Publication titleEdinburghLive (Scotland)
It comes days after several Edinburgh University experts warned that the country is experiencing a new wave of the virus, as well as it being said that it is impossible to judge just how many confirmed cases there are in the country, due to the easing off testing

Experts are now fearing that the new variant has a 27 per cent growth advantage over BA.2. Although it is thought to be more contagious, early indications are that it does not cause more severe symptoms than previous versions.

The Scottish Sun report that in US states such as New York and New Jersey, the BA.2 subvariant is now responsible for over 80 per cent of infections - resulting in it being confirmed as America's dominant Covid variant in May.

Now it is believed to be responsible for a surge in cases in Scotland. Professor Rowland Kao, chair of veterinary epidemiology and data science at Edinburgh University, told The Herald: "It seems to be increasing more in Scotland than in England and Wales - why, we don't know.

"It looks like [BA.2.12.1] may explain the faster increase infections in Scotland, because the overall increase is steeper than in England and Wales and the 'BA.2-compatible' cases are going up faster here, whereas in England they're sort of stable.

"What's happening in Scotland is that [BA.2.12.1] is expanding more rapidly than in the south, for whatever reason", he added. The number of people in hospital with Covid in Scotland is up 27 per cent since the end of May.

And the Office for National Statistics estimated some 176,900 u0097 one in 30 u0097 Scots got the virus in the week ending June 11. This is the highest in the UK compared to one in 50 in England and one in 45 in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Prof Kao believes the country's early success with the vaccination programme could "ironically" be a factor. He added: "Our residual immunity here may be different. Broadly speaking, we probably did slightly better vaccination-wise - in that we got boosters out more quickly - and ironically...

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