Two thirds of Brits who have caught Omicron already had Covid, study finds

AROUND two thirds of people infected with Omicron had already caught earlier Covid variants, a study has found.

Imperial College London’s React study found 72 per cent of Brits struck with the mutant variant in the past few months had been reinfected.

Top scientists estimate as many as seven in 10 people now catching Covid have had it before.

Professor Christl Donnelly, who runs the study, said: “There appear to be people who are at higher risk, because they've been infected again.”

England saw record highs of Covid infections in January, but levels are slowly dropping now.

The study found one in 23 people in England were infected between January 5 and 20, the highest figure since May 2020.

The highest prevalence was in primary school children at 7.81 per cent during that period, while overall it was 4.41 per cent.

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Prof Paul Elliott said: “Clearly the type of people who got infected previously are the type of people who are getting infected currently.”

Another 94,326 cases were announced yesterday, with the numbers flattening off because a fall in adults is being cancelled out by rises in children.

There were 439 more deaths and 17,162 people in hospitals across the UK.

The React study said there is now a plateau in infections in England after the wave hit a record high in the first week of January.

Prof Donnelly added: “Even if it is going up in children, it won't do that indefinitely. 

“Obviously, having a child that goes to school living at home is a potential risk factor for the rest of the family. 

“But there has been a lot of transmission already among adults, and there's been a lot of vaccination as well – so these things are trading off each other.”

Fully vaccinated people who catch Covid end up with a "super immunity", a study has claimed.

Oregon Health and Science University said this is also the case for those who get infected before having two jabs.

Volunteers with both kinds of immunity produced an "amazingly high" antibody response, that was ten times more potent, tests showed.

It comes as a huge spike in Covid cases is expected next week when health chiefs start counting reinfections for the first time.

From Monday, the UK Health Security Agency will include people testing positive for a second time in its daily cases count, a move set to blow up the numbers.

UKHSA’s official estimate suggests only 10 to 15 per cent of cases are reinfections, but including them will still bump up the daily figures.

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The new system will see any positive tests that are at least 90 days apart counted as separate cases.

UKHSA officials said: “As the pandemic continues and more variants emerge, it is more likely that people will be reinfected with Covid-19.”

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