Exact moment Brits with Covid are most contagious as Juno subvariant spreads
The exact moment people with Covid are most contagious has been pinpointed in a series of studies.
With the new subvariant - JN.1 or 'Juno' - spreading across the country and becoming the most dominant strain, there are concerns recent conditions could lead to an increase in cases. A mixture of festive socialising and mixing over Christmas and New Year, as well as the colder weather that has kickstarted 2024, could both contribute towards a spread of the virus in coming days and weeks.
It isn’t clear how far it will go, but experts have already warned the Mirror that we’re in the middle of a wave - with no end in sight yet. In a recent evidence review, the UK Health Security Agency has delved into the studies around the Omicron variant - what has long been the dominant strain in the country. The UKHSA has examined five separate studies which all considered transmission of the virus directly.
They identified the moment Brits are most contagious and likely to pass on JN.1. It was "around symptom onset" that the virus was found to spread the most. However, whilst this was the most common moment for Brits to be coughing, spluttering and breathing the virus over one another - it unfortunately wasn’t just limited to spreading in this moment. It was then in the days after symptom onset that viral culture positivity was at its highest. A further 11 studies found that peak viral loads occurred a median or mean of one to five days after symptom onset.
Other studies examined how long it took people to shift the virus itself, and move from testing positive to testing negative. They generally found that there were “substantial differences” in how different people cleared the virus. In general, the time was estimated to be the mean or media or around seven to 11 days. However, it was thought to take roughly around ten to 15 days to clear for people who were hospitalised, immunodeficient or those with chronic health conditions.
Long Covid symptoms - 23 most reported signs from palpitations to vertigo
The findings were consistent with previous study reviews and found Omicron was most infectious around symptom onset, but remained potentially infectious for longer.
The findings come amid an uncertain time for Covid in the UK. Following on from festive social mixing and recently colder weather, there are concerns the two constitute ideal conditions for the virus to spread.
Over Christmas, provisional data has revealed that at least one child, aged five to nine, tragically died of Covid. Omicron has proved to be the deadliest Covid strain amongst children, having claimed the most lives.
Despite that, cases, according to the most recently available data, fell almost ten per cent on the ten weeks prior. Despite that deaths are up almost eight per cent on the same time period, and hospitalisations up almost 19 per cent. After cases have been steadily rising from late November, they fell off briefly around Christmas last month, before rising again.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
