Elliott, Paul and Eales, Oliver and Steyn, Nicholas and Tang, David and Bodinier, Barbara and Wang, Haowei and Elliott, Joshua and Whitaker, Matthew and Atchison, Christina and Diggle, Peter J. and Page, Andrew J. and Trotter, Alexander J. and Ashby, Deborah and Barclay, Wendy and Taylor, Graham and Ward, Helen and Darzi, Ara and Cooke, Graham S. and Donnelly, Christl A. and Chadeau-Hyam, Marc (2022) Twin peaks:The Omicron SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 and BA.2 epidemics in England. Science, 376 (6600). ISSN 0036-8075
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Rapid transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant has led to record-breaking incidence rates around the world. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study has tracked SARS-CoV-2 infection in England using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results from self-administered throat and nose swabs from randomly selected participants aged 5+ years, approximately monthly from May 2020 to March 2022. Weighted prevalence in March 2022 was the highest recorded in REACT-1 at 6.37% (N=109,181) with Omicron BA.2 largely replacing BA.1. Prevalence was increasing overall with the greatest increase in those aged 65-74 and 75+ years. This was associated with increased hospitalizations and deaths but at much lower levels than in previous waves against a backdrop of high levels of vaccination.