Omicron SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in England during February 2022: A series of cross-sectional community surveys.
Lancet Reg Health Eur
; 21: 100462, 2022 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35915784
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Omicron wave of COVID-19 in England peaked in January 2022 resulting from the rapid transmission of the Omicron BA.1 variant. We investigate the spread and dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the population of England during February 2022, by region, age and main SARS-CoV-2 sub-lineage.Methods:
In the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study we obtained data from a random sample of 94,950 participants with valid throat and nose swab results by RT-PCR during round 18 (8 February to 1 March 2022).Findings:
We estimated a weighted mean SARS-CoV-2 prevalence of 2.88% (95% credible interval [CrI] 2.76-3.00), with a within-round effective reproduction number (R) overall of 0.94 (0·91-0.96). While within-round weighted prevalence fell among children (aged 5 to 17 years) and adults aged 18 to 54 years, we observed a level or increasing weighted prevalence among those aged 55 years and older with an R of 1.04 (1.00-1.09). Among 1,616 positive samples with sublineages determined, one (0.1% [0.0-0.3]) corresponded to XE BA.1/BA.2 recombinant and the remainder were Omicron N=1047, 64.8% (62.4-67.2) were BA.1; N=568, 35.2% (32.8-37.6) were BA.2. We estimated an R additive advantage for BA.2 (vs BA.1) of 0.38 (0.34-0.41). The highest proportion of BA.2 among positives was found in London.Interpretation:
In February 2022, infection prevalence in England remained high with level or increasing rates of infection in older people and an uptick in hospitalisations. Ongoing surveillance of both survey and hospitalisations data is required.Funding:
Department of Health and Social Care, England.
BA.2 sublineage; COVID-19; Ct, Cycle threshold; LTLA, Lower-Tier Local Authority; NHS, National Health Service; Omicron variant; P-spline, penalised spline; RT-PCR, Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction; Random community surveys; SARS-CoV-2; UKHSA, UK Health Security Agency; b-spline, basis spline; rim, random iterative method
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudo:
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article