A person leaves a train station at Westminster Underground during the morning rush hour, amid the outbreak of the coronaviruses COVID 19 in London, Britain, December 1, 2021. REUTERS Henry Nicholls
LONDON, Dec 3, Reuters -- The prevalence of COVID 19 infections in England rose to around 1 in 60 people in the week ending Nov. 27 according to Britain's Office for National Statistics, which was led by the dominant Delta variant rather than the newly identified Omicron.
The prevalence was up from 1 in 65 reported the previous week, the ONS said, and 99% of all coronavirus infections that were sequenced were genetically compatible with the Delta variant.
To date, we have not identified any infections compatible with the new Omicron variant B. The ONS said there were 529 among our survey participants.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has introduced travel restrictions and mask mandates in order to slow the spread of Omicron while work is undertaken to understand it better. There have been 42 confirmed cases of the variant in Britain, which has had mutations that are associated with reduced vaccine efficacy.
It is the spread of the dominant and highly transmissible Delta variant, especially among children, that keeps infection levels high. Britain reported its highest daily infection number since July. The ONS said that the infections had increased in younger children, with 4.25% estimated to be infected, and remained high in older children, where 3.46% were estimated to be infected.
Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology, University of Cambridge, said that Omicron would completely displace Delta, which might continue to circulate in unvaccinated populations like young children.
More Delta circulating in kids and more Omicron circulating proportionately in vaccinated individuals is one scenario that could play out. He told Reuters that it would be hard to displace Delta completely.
Omicron is not spreading rapidly at the moment, according to the look of it. There is probably sustained community transmission, but it's probably just beginning.