Britons have been told to wear face masks again, months after ditching the coverings, as the Arcturus Covid variant ignites thousands of new cases. The Omicron sub-variant has surged across several countries, with the potential of mask-wearing becoming commonplace on public transport again to try and curb the spread. In the UK, experts recommended people wear masks again after five deaths associated with XBB.1.16.
Speaking to the Daily Mail Online, Professor Stephen Griffin, chair of Independent SAGE, also warned that people consider regular testing again.
He warned that while it “may seem like a throwback to last year”, the virus remains dangerous.
The doctor said that Covid “continues to do harm”, especially to those who are “least able to cope”.
With countrywide Covid-era restrictions having expired, individuals are once again responsible for preventing excess deaths, he added.
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The focus is now on “individual risk”, which is now “much lower” for most, but means that some will need to live with precautions.
Professor Griffin added: “If [the] Government won’t act to enable everyone to ‘live’ with Covid, vulnerable people will continue to require precautions and, ideally, others will act with an appropriate level of altruism.”
Arcturus is now rippling across several nations, and the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) has detected 105 in the UK as of this week.
The UKHSA estimates that the variant makes up approximately 2.3 percent of all new cases.
Of the 105 confirmed infections, five have resulted in death, and officials believe the new variant is even more infectious than its predecessors.
Research suggests it may be 1.2 times more infective than Omicron, the last major sub-variant.
A briefing from the agency released on April 20 revealed that the variant has spread to 22 countries, and infections were rising rapidly in India, where officials have reported 61 percent of all associated cases.
But the UKHSA has not issued official warnings, and experts aren’t convinced Arcturus is more deadly than its predecessors.
So far, XBB.1.16 is a “designated variant”, not a “variant of concern” like other strains.
The designation means the organisation will dedicate time to “more comprehensive epidemiological studies”.
Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and adviser to the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccinations, told The Independent there was “no clear evidence” suggesting it is more dangerous “in terms of case fatality rates, or hospitalisation rates”
He added: “The deaths that we see [are] nearly all in the elderly and, of course, they are caused by whatever is circulating at the moment.”
