let s look back at the trend for community infections charted by the weekly office for national statistics survey. this suggests that 2.3 million people in the uk had the virus in the week to 24june, compared with nearly five million at the end of march, when there was a surge driven by a variant of 0micron ba.2. but the level s rising fast thanks to new variants and today, we learned what health officials think might happen in the weeks ahead. it doesn t look as though that wave has finished yet, so we would anticipate that hospital cases will rise. and it s possible, quite likely, that they will actually peak over the previous ba.2 wave. so, here are those covid hospital numbers. the most up to date figures are for england. there are now over 9,300 patients in hospitals with covid, though some are there because of another health issue. we re now being warned this could go up above the 16,600
being admitted to hospital with covid is expected to rise again. the latest uk figures show that infectionsjumped by more than 0.5 million in a week. our health editor hugh pym is here with the latest. huw, today we ve had a warning from a senior official that we are in a new covid wave and the numbers will continue rising from here. let s look back at the trend for community infections charted by the weekly office for national statistics survey. this suggests that 2.3 million people had the virus in the week tojune 24th, compared with nearly five million at the end of march, when there was a surge driven by a variant of omicron ba.2. but the level is rising fast thanks to new variants, and today, we learned what health officials think might happen in the weeks ahead. it doesn t look as though that wave has finished yet so we would anticipate that hospital cases will rise and it s possible, quite likely, that they will actually peak over the previous ba.2 wave.
in the week to 2a june, compared with nearly five million at the end of march, when there was a surge driven by a variant of 0micron ba.2. but the level s rising fast thanks to new variants, and today, we learned what health officials think might happen in the weeks ahead. it doesn t look as though that wave has finished yet, so we would anticipate that hospital cases will rise. and it s possible, quite likely, that they will actually peak over the previous ba.2 wave~ so, here are those covid hospital numbers. the most up to date figures are for england. there are now over 9,300 patients in hospitals with covid, though some are there because of another health issue. we re now being warned this could go up above the 16,600 seen in the spring. nhs providers representing trusts in england said they were in for a bumpy ride in the next few months, and the latest message was concerning. damejenny harries also said the flu season may come earlier than usual in the autumn,
i think, a more cautious approach. they are acting in advance, they hope, of a rise in hospital cases, to head off the worst of it. but in england, the government s firm holding out against imposing any new measures. now, that will be in part motivated by a desire to keep things open as much as possible, to protect the economy, keep it going, to keep schools open, of course, and to also protect public health as best they can with what has been put in place at the moment. but there is also a political reality at play, too, which we can t ignore, and that is that the prime minister, borisjohnson, is under intense pressure from his own party to not go any further and impose further restrictions, because people are ideologically opposed to them. they simply don t buy that they re necessary at this point, given that the high number of cases, which is continuing to rise, but at the moment, the early data suggesting also that omicron is perhaps less severe than other variants of the viruses,
gowns to gloves and we are doing whatever we can to protect communities from the surge of hospital cases that are likely to see from un from the unvaccinated population. look, now let me address three specific updates before i get my full brief from my team. first, booster shots. i know dr. fauci, like an echo chamber here, i know it, but repeating myself what dr. fauci said it very clearly, booster shots work. significantly increase the protection provide the highest level of protection against omicron. americans, we have given out over 70 million booster shots. importantly, two out of three eligible seniors have received their booster shots. booster shots are free, they are safe, and available. over 90 over 90,000