UK’s daily Covid cases 14% lower than last week with 94,524 new infections

THE UK has seen a dip of 14 per cent in daily Covid cases compared to a week ago – with 94,524 new infections reported today.

Omicron is a milder strain, with studies showing vaccines slash the risk of hospitalisation or severe illness even further.

Most people who catch it get better after a few days resting at home with cold-like or flu symptoms.

Cases have risen in recent weeks, with ministers urging Brits to use common sense as the country learns to live with the virus.

But numbers of patients in hospital with the bug are still lower than in former peaks.

Deaths have also remained lower, but today the UK saw a jump with an extra 250 tragic fatalities in the last 24 hours.

It comes after the Health Secretary yesterday revealed scientists are working on plans to green light a second Covid booster jab for all over-50s this Autumn.

Sajid Javid said said: “We will focus our tests on of those that are most vulnerable or in vulnerable settings and that’s the right way forward.

“Post April 1 if people have Covid symptoms then they should just behave sensibly like you would expect someone to behave if they had flu symptoms.

“That is to socialise a bit less, stay indoors, and wait till you feel better.”

And he said that people who test positive should still self-isolate for at least four or five days before returning to work.

He said ministers are not worried about rising cases, which was “always going to be the case” as the country ended all restrictions.

Spring boosters for the over-75s and clinically vulnerable people opened up yesterday, with anyone in that group and six months on from their last jab able to book in.

Omicron has been proven to be a milder strain of Covid, especially in the vaccinated, but thousands are still catching the bug every day.

And for some more vulnerable people it could cause a more severe illness – so even if it is milder for you, you risk passing it on to someone who might suffer more.

That’s another reason why it’s important to make sure you have any vaccines that are offered to you.

BA.2 is now the dominant form of the variant in the UK, after its sibling spread across the country just before Christmas.

It is thought to be just as mild, especially in the vaccinated, but spreads far more quickly.

Professor Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist, warned cases are going to “skyrocket”.

But Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News: “We keep the situation very carefully under review.

“There’s no other variant of concern out there that is an issue at this point in time.