Face masks 'should be reintroduced' after rise in Covid cases - poll results

03 October 2023 , 13:18

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Thousands of Mirror readers have voted for the reintroduction of face masks in public areas. (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The new Covid variant Pirola is now spreading 'in most regions in the UK', with experts urging people to start wearing face coverings in indoor public areas again - and thousands of Mirror readers agree.

In our poll Do you think face masks should be reintroduced? a sizeable 8,374 of you said yes, with 5,023 voting against a return. The Pirola strain is a multi-mutated and highly immune system evasive type of coronavirus fast becoming the most dominant in the UK, with positive cases doubling almost every few days in recent weeks. It has been confirmed to have more than 30 mutations, making it difficult for experts to analyse and is already on the World Health Organization's watch list.

Symptoms of the variant - officially titled 2.86 - have so far been listed as a high fever, cough, blocked or runny nose, loss of taste or smell, headaches, muscle aches and fatigue. Doctors have already confirmed that tests show no evidence the mutation is any more contagious or deadly than other strains.

But moving into the colder months and with schools now back in full swing, the number of bugs spreading will head into overdrive, hence the call to reintroduce face coverings. One expert has warned that the sub-strain, currently known as ‘BA.6’, is showing an alarming tendency to mutate, leaving many of her peers concerned.

Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, a primary healthcare expert at the University of Oxford, shared on Twitter: "My various science WhatsApp groups are buzzing. Genetic lineage clips and diagrams flying back and forth. I understand little of the detail but it looks like it's once again time to MASK UP."

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Meanwhile, Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician from University College London who is a sitting member on the Independent SAGE group, has shared her thoughts on the future of the disease on social media. The expert highlighted that the variant has a "LOT of new mutations that makes it v different to previous Omicron strains". She added that this meant it was "potentially more able to cause a big wave".

Writing in an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal, she claimed to be "reasonably certain that we have entered another Covid-19 wave" - though stressed it was "unlikely that this wave will cause a large surge in hospital admissions or deaths" because of the UK's high rate of vaccinations.

The expert said that since the start of July, daily hospital admissions have been increasing and had "more than doubled" as of August 4 compared to a month earlier, adding the number of patients in hospital "primarily because of Covid" has also increased. The legal requirement to wear face coverings ended on January 27, 2022 and there is currently no official guidance to wear the masks in the UK.

Paul Speed