The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been downgraded to level 2, meaning the virus is in “general circulation” but healthcare pressures and transmission are “declining or stable”.
The chief medical officers of the UK nations and the national medical director of the NHS in England have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level be moved down from level 3 amid falling cases. They said the Covid-19 wave of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 was “subsiding”.
Rates of Covid have decreased as have the number of severe cases needing hospital care, they added. However, they said further Covid surges were “likely” as they urged people to take up the offer of vaccination. The autumn booster campaign is due to start within days.
The move brings the UK to the lowest alert level it has been at since the system was introduced in May 2020. Level 2 is defined as being in “general circulation in the UK, but direct Covid-19 healthcare pressures are low and transmission is declining or stable”, while 3 is in “general circulation in the UK”. A final downgrade to level 1 would mean the virus is “present in the UK, but the number of cases and transmission is low”.
“Based on UK Health Security Agency advice, the UK chief medical officers and NHS England national medical director have recommended to ministers the Covid alert level moves from level 3 to level 2,” the medical officers said in a statement.
“Hospitals and the wider health systems remain extremely busy overall but the summer BA.4 and BA.5 wave is subsiding and direct Covid severe illness is now a much smaller proportion of this.
“Severe Covid cases, direct Covid healthcare pressures, direct Covid deaths and Office for National Statistics community positivity estimates have decreased.”
The recommendation to downgrade the alert level has been accepted by health ministers across the UK.
Prof Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Sage group, wrote on Twitter: “Quick Covid update for England – hospital admissions still falling and we are now back where we were in May 2022 between the two recent Omicron waves.
“In May we could already see BA.5 growing, but there’s nothing like that in England right now (as far as I can tell – good news!)”
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