Yahoo News Will masks make a comeback amid new COVID strain?
A new petition is urging the government to reintroduce mandatory mask wearing for the public in healthcare settings.
A new sub-strain of coronavirus has led to some scientists to call for a return to public mask-wearing.
The sub-variant, which is currently known as BA.6, has been seen in Denmark and Israel so far, and has scientists on alert thanks to its reported tendency to mutate.
University of Oxford primary healthcare expert Dr Trisha Greenhalgh tweeted: "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."
However, other scientists suggested that a reinstatement of mask policies would not help, and pointed out that Independent SAGE - of which Dr Greenhalgh is a member - had previously suggested pursuing a zero-COVID policy to tackle the virus.
Elsewhere, a new petition is urging the government to reintroduce mandatory mask wearing for the public in healthcare settings, with more than 5,000 people backing the move at the time of publishing.
"We urge the Government to implement a policy requiring mask wearing in all healthcare settings including hospitals, clinics and GP practices for staff, visitors and patients," the petition said.
Dr Greenhalgh's comments come as a new paper by fellow Independent SAGE member Dr Christina Pagel, published by the British medical Journal this week, documents the rise in COVID cases and suggests the UK is in the grip of a new wave of the virus.
"Since the start of July 2023, daily hospital admissions with COVID have been increasing (more than doubled as at 4 August compared to four weeks earlier), and the number of patients in hospital primarily because of COVID has also doubled in that time," Dr Pagel wrote.
"Secondary indicators such as the Zoe Symptom Tracker app and Google Trends of searches for COVID-19 symptoms have also been increasing since early July. So it is reasonably certain that we have entered another COVID-19 wave."
The new variant has not yet been detected in the UK, with the majority of coronavirus cases in the country currently caused by Omicron strains Arcturus and the newer Eris strain, which accounts for around 11% of cases in the UK.
And while Dr Pagel noted that these sub-strains would not cause a large wave "on their own", she points to other factors that could exacerbate the issue.
"Almost all under 50s have not had a vaccine dose for 18 months, and most under 75s not for a year," she wrote. "Protection from previous infection will also be waning in the absence of a large wave for several months.
"It is thus likely that this wave is hitting a more susceptible population than the last few, and this might be enough to drive a large wave this September when coupled with return to school and work and more time spent inside, where the virus spreads most easily."
Watch: New COVID 'tripledemic' concerns
Another potential contributing factor to a future spread in the virus is a dampening down of vaccines in the UK. More than 12 million people will miss out on a coronavirus vaccine this winter as the numbers being offered a booster jab have been scaled back.
A COVID-19 booster will not be offered to healthy people under the age of 65 this winter, health officials said, compared with last year when the autumn booster jab was offered to people aged 50 and over.
