Covid news - live: New ‘highly infectious’ XBB.1.5 subvariant ‘a wake-up’ call for UK

The UK Health Security Agency had said that pharmacists are “struggling to obtain the very basic, most common cold and flu medicine.”

Speaking to the PA news agency, chief executive Leyla Hannbeck explained: “This isn’t just the branded medicines, it is also simple things like throat lozenges, cough mixtures or pain killers – particularly the ones that are soluble.

“The demand has been high because this season we’ve seen higher cases of colds and flu and people are obviously trying very hard to look after themselves and making sure that they use the relevant products to manage the symptoms.

“And that has led to a shortage of these products in terms of us not being able to obtain them.”

Ms Hannbeck added: “But this is part of a bigger issue – from HRT to antibiotics to this, we are constantly finding ourselves in a situation when as soon as the demand for something goes up we are struggling with the supply.

“Unfortunately part of that is a lack of planning by officials (at the Department of Health and Social Care) in terms of foreseeing the problems and trying to plan in advance to sort it.”

The World Health Organisation is “concerned about the risk to life in China” it said on Wednesday as it warned that information from Beijing is not giving an accurate picture of the impact of the coronavirus.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said he understood why many countries have imposed testing restrictions on passengers coming from China given the lack of information from the Chinese government about the outbreak.

“WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalisation, severe disease and death,” he said.

Alastair Jamieson has more:

A “lack of planning” from the government is to blame for a shortage of cough and cold medicines, pharmacy leaders have said.

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies accused the Government of “being in denial” over problems with the supply chain.

It comes as pharmacists reported shortages of common medicines for colds and flu including throat lozenges, cough mixtures and some pain killers.

The UK Health Security Agency has warned that winter illnesses including flu and Covid-19 continue to circulate at “high levels”.

As a result, officials urged people to keep children with a fever off school and urged unwell adults to wear face masks to stem the spread of infections.

Chief executive Leyla Hannbeck told the PA news agency: “Pharmacists are struggling to obtain the very basic, most common cold and flu medicine.

“This isn’t just the branded medicines, it is also simple things like throat lozenges, cough mixtures or pain killers - particularly the ones that are soluble.

“The demand has been high because this season we’ve seen higher cases of colds and flu and people are obviously trying very hard to look after themselves and making sure that they use the relevant products to manage the symptoms.

“And that has led to a shortage of these products in terms of us not being able to obtain them.”

Data from China shows no new coronavirus variant has been found there, but it also under-represents how many people have died in the country’s rapidly spreading outbreak, World Health Organisation officials said on Wednesday.

Global unease has grown about the accuracy of China’s reporting of an outbreak that has filled hospitals and overwhelmed some funeral homes since Beijing abruptly reversed its “zero Covid” policy.

The UN agency was releasing data provided by the Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a day after WHO officials met Chinese scientists. China has been reporting daily Covid deaths in single figures.

Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director, told a media briefing that current numbers being published from China under-represented numbers of hospital admissions, ICU admissions and “particularly in terms of death.”

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency was continuing to seek more rapid and regular data from China on hospitalisations and deaths.

“WHO is concerned about the risk to life in China and has reiterated the importance of vaccination, including booster doses to protect against hospitalisation, severe disease and death,” he said.

Reuters

The government’s failure to support people with long Covid could be adding billions of pounds a year to the benefits bill, Labour has warned.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party said Rishi Sunak and his ministers had “no plan” to help those suffering from ongoing symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, muscle aches and palpitations.

Worklessness due to long Covid could be costing £3bn a year in sickness benefits, according to Labour analysis shared with The Independent.

Adam Forrest writes:

A “highly transmissible” Covid strain has emerged and is already behind one in 25 cases in the UK, surveillance data suggests.

The strain, given the moniker XBB.1.5, has caused alarm in the US over its quick spread and a recent rise in hospitalisations. It is behind four in 10 cases in the country, up from two in 10 one week ago.

XBB is a subvariant of the Omicron BA.2 variant, and XBB.1.5 is a subvariant of XBB. It emerged as a “recombinant lineage between the second generation Omicron variants”, Professor Kei Sato wrote in a study by University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University and Kyoto University.

Thomas Kingsley reports:

Covid travel restrictions are back. Every traveller flying from mainland China to England must provide a negative test result before being allowed on the plane.

In addition travellers flying direct from China to Heathrow may be invited to take a second test on arrival. The government says as many as 20 per cent of arriving passengers could be checked, though they are able to decline the invitation.

The government announced the measures a day after saying there were no plans to reintroduce Covid testing.

Simon Calder writes:

New Covid strains are sparking fresh health concerns worldwide as new descendants of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant now reportedly account for 40 per cent of cases in the US.

Omicron relatives XBB and XBB.1.5 have seen a surge in cases in countries across the globe.

It comes as UK-based health experts have suggested that up to 9,000 people are dying from Covid a day in China, where infections have dramatically risen following the country’s end to strict isolation rules.

Emily Atkinson reports:

The UK is not prepared for another Covid wave, experts warn, as the spread of “highly infectious” subvariant XBB.1.5 continues in the UK.

The strain has caused a surge of cases in the US, with some experts concerned that its mutations could see it trigger a similar spike in the UK by dodging the wall of immunity built up from previous waves and vaccine roll-outs.

University of Warwick virologist Professor Lawrence Young told The Independent’s Thomas Kingsley that the UK is not at all prepared for another wave if the highly transmissible sub variant continues to spread at a fast pace amid rising rates of flu infection.

“We didn’t have enough public health messaging around the flu jab. We’ve now got a perfect storm of different respiratory infections going around at the moment and that’s inevitably going to result in more pressure on the NHS,” Professor Young said.

“All the information so far shows that whilst this is a very infectious variant and while it can escape the protections from previous vaccination and past infection but there’s no evidence it’s causing more severe disease compared to other Omicron variants but the fact that it’s spreading more and more rapidly, particularly in the US, is very concerning.

“It’s reaching out to more vulnerable people.”

The EU yesterday said it has offered China help to deal with its Covid-19 crisis, including the donation of vaccines, as the bloc seeks to coordinate how authorities should check incoming passengers from China for any new variants.

Several member nations announced individual efforts over the past week. At the same time, the EU's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control insisted that the situation in China didn't pose an immediate overall threat to health.

“The variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU, and as such are not challenging for the immune response” of EU citizens, it said in its latest impact study.