Figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show that the proportion of hospital patients with respiratory symptoms who tested positive for Covid-19 reached 9.3% on August 29, the highest rate since October 30 of the previous year.
This represents a 55% increase from a month earlier.
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, stated that the increase in positivity rates is not surprising, attributing it to a combination of the return to work and school after the summer holidays, cooler weather, and waning immunity.
He also warned that these factors would be exacerbated by the development of new variants and the limited access to the free autumn-winter vaccine booster, which is currently restricted to those aged 75 and over and the most clinically vulnerable.
A new strain, Stratus, has been circulating in Britain since August and accounts for a significant proportion of cases in England.
The variant, which has two forms, XFG and XFG.3, may cause a unique symptom: a hoarse voice.
Despite this, experts from the UKHSA and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have not expressed concern, stating it is normal for viruses to mutate and change over time and that data does not indicate the variant leads to more severe illness or deaths.
Covid-19 symptoms remain similar to other illnesses and include a high temperature, new continuous cough, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, fatigue, aching body, headache, sore throat, and a blocked or runny nose.
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