DAILY Covid-19 infections are down on last week’s rates as Omicron deaths have now ‘passed the peak’.
A further 107,364 coronavirus cases have been reported today as Brits get back to the office after the PM axed work from home orders.
It’s a drop on last week’s figures when 109,133 people tested positive with the virus.
Yesterday 108,069 new Covid infections were reported by the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA), with a further 359 deaths.
Today there were an additional 330 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday announced Plan B will be completely shredded next Wednesday.
Hated vaccine passports will be dumped along with requirement to wear face masks anywhere indoors.
The guidance to work from home has been dropped effective immediately – meaning Brits can go back to the office tomorrow.
The remaining rules will expire on January 26 meaning the changes will kick in on Thursday morning.
Scientists have today claimed that Omicron deaths have peaked and will start to drop within days.
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Projections from the SPI-M modelling group, shown to ministers last week, estimated deaths would peak around January 16 before falling again.
The group said deaths would likely top out at around 250 per day.
England’s current average is 231 per day and the figure fell on Wednesday after stalling between 230 and 240 for the past week.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said at a Downing Street press conference last night that the Covid death count is “a lot, lot lower than it’s been before”.
At the peak of last winter’s wave an average 1,135 deaths were reported every day – five times higher than the current figure.
The Omicron variant has been proven to be milder for some people and most who have caught it have reported cold-like symptoms.
A string of hugely positive studies show Omicron is milder than other strains in the vaccinated, with the first official UK report revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.
Covid booster jabs protect against Omicron and offer the best chance to get through the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.
Trending In The News’s Jabs Army campaign is helped get the vital extra vaccines in Brits’ arms to help restrictions be removed.
‘TWO TYPES OF COVID’
One expert today said that hospitals are now battling two types of Covid.
Matthew Trainer, chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, explained not all patients are facing the same outcomes.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve now effectively got two types of Covid really.
“There is Covid amongst vaccinated people, and Covid amongst the unvaccinated.
“And if you’re unlucky enough to get severe illness, vaccination is the difference between probably a short stay on a ward with oxygen and potentially a bit critical care, and that puts all these conversations on restrictions to a very different light.”
Mr Trainer said the “vast majority of Covid patients who are in critical care continue to be unvaccinated”.
