Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said that the latest Covid-19 case figures were “cautiously good news” which could indicate that the Omicron wave is “turning around”.
Asked about the latest UK data, he told BBC Breakfast: “I would say cautiously good news – it does look like across the whole of the country cases do seem to be falling.
“We have had very, very high case numbers throughout late December and early January – we peaked about 200,000 at one point. We do now seem to be a little bit beyond that.
“Hospital admissions are still relatively high albeit there is some evidence that maybe they’re plateauing or possibly going down in London, which is cautiously good news.
“I would say we probably need about an extra week of data to really see the effect of children going back to school – we’re still only two weeks since children went back to school – but if we still see that over the next week or so, I’d be pretty confident that we are seeing this wave turning around.”
Asked whether changes in testing rules may have contributed to the drop in cases, he added: “Yesterday was a Sunday and we were in the region of 70,000 (cases) which is a lot lower than previous Sundays, so I think even taking into account any changes in testing I think it is pretty clear that the Omicron wave is slowing down.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-latest-news-self-isolation-rules-tests-cases-vaccine/
