‘No room for complacency’ on Covid as milder virus ‘still leading to persistent health problems’

An expert has warned the pandemic ‘is still very much ongoing’, reports Andy Gregory

Milder Covid ‘is still leading to persistent health problems’ (Yui Mok/PA Wire)

There is “no room for complacency” in the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with the milder disease seen in recent months “still leading to persistent health problems,” an expert has warned.

The pandemic “is still very much ongoing” and “further variants have the potential to reduce the protection from vaccines and previous infection”, according to Dr Sarah Scobie of the Nuffield Trust health think-tank.

In highlighting the dangers presented by the Omicron variants despite the milder illness they tend to provoke, Dr Scobie pointed to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures – the latest showing that 2 million people living in private households were experiencing self-reported long Covid at the start of May.