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https://scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3185222/britains-covid-19-death-toll-passes-200000-omicron-subvariants
World/ Europe

Britain’s Covid-19 death toll passes 200,000 as Omicron subvariants drive new wave of cases

  • The UK has been hit hard by the pandemic, with one of the highest fatality rates globally
  • The Netherlands is the latest country to detect the Covid BA. 2.75 ‘Centaurus’ subvariant
The National Covid Memorial Wall in London. File photo: AFP

Britain’s Covid-19 death toll topped 200,000 and could rise further as a new wave of infections driven by highly-contagious Omicron subvariants sweeps across Europe.

Just over 3 per cent of all deaths last week were linked to Covid-19, pushing the total number of deaths to 200,247 up to July 1, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The UK has been hit hard by the pandemic, with one of the highest fatality rates globally and concern rising again as Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 drive a new wave of cases.

Most recent official figures now show that one in 25 people in England tested positive in the final week of June. People can be infected even if they have had the illness previously, but vaccination does help to protect against serious illness.

Britain is already rolling out a booster shot programme for vulnerable people but the country needs to urgently redouble efforts to reach unvaccinated individuals, a UK government committee said on Wednesday.

Nearly 3 million adults in England are yet to have a Covid-19 shot and are at greater risk of hospitalisation or death, the Public Accounts Committee said in a report.

On Tuesday the World Health Organization warned that the death rate was rising and urged governments and healthcare systems to take steps to curb Covid-19 transmission.

Subvariants of the Omicron strain are lifting case and fatality numbers, said Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a briefing in Geneva, and recommended the revival of protocols like mask-wearing to stop the spread.

The Netherlands announced on Wednesday it has become the latest country to detect a case of the Covid-19 Omicron subvariant BA.2.75, as experts expressed concern about the strain’s rapid spread.

The subvariant, nicknamed “Centaurus”, first emerged in India in May and has since spread to around 10 countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia.

It “has also now been identified in the Netherlands,” the Dutch National Institute of Public Health said in a statement.

“Little is known about BA. 2.75,” the institute said, but it “appears to more easily bypass the defences built up against SARS-CoV-2 through small, specific changes”.

The WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said last week that the UN agency was closely tracking the strain, but there were “limited sequences to analyse”.

“This subvariant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor binding domain of the spike protein … so we have to watch that,” she said in a tweeted video.

She added that it was “too early to know” how well the strain can evade immunity or how severe it was.

Earlier this month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control listed BA. 2.75 as a “variant under monitoring”.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse