From masks stuffed into coat pockets to plastic testing kits lined up by the bathroom sink, the rituals of the Covid years thankfully seem consigned to history for most of us.
asserted
rituals → stuff → us
Yet in recent weeks, an unwelcome phrase has begun creeping back into conversations in offices, schools and family WhatsApp groups: ‘I think I’ve got Covid.’
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I → begin → Covid
For after several years in which the virus that once brought Britain to a standstill had largely faded from everyday consciousness, it seems to be on the march again.
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it → bring → march
Latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show hospital admissions relating to Covid have jumped by almost 50 per cent in a week, while the proportion of hospital Covid tests coming back positive has risen from 5.9 per cent to 7 per cent.
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proportion → show → cent
In London, the increase is sharper still, with hospital admissions rising by almost 80 per cent in seven days.
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admissions → rise → days
Among the over-85s – the most vulnerable age group – they have leapt from 7.08 to 12.43 per 100,000.
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they → leap → 100,000
Needless to say, far fewer people are testing for Covid these days, so the true scale of infection remains unknown.
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scale → say → infection
It is enough to prompt an uncomfortable question many of us hoped we would never have to ask again: just how worried should we be?
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we → prompt → us
For while Covid is staging something of an autumn resurgence, the numbers remain a world away from the darkest days of the pandemic, when hospitals were overwhelmed and hundreds of Britons were dying every day.
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hundreds → stag → Britons
What’s more, symptoms are, by and large, much more manageable.
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symptoms → ’ → ?
The rituals of the Covid years thankfully seem consigned to history for most of us – yet an unwelcome phrase has begun creeping back into conversations: ‘I think I’ve got Covid.’
asserted
I → seem → Covid
Covid hospital admissions have risen by almost 80 per cent in seven days in London, while among the over-85s they have leapt from 7.08 to 12.43 per 100,000
For now, that is, because keeping experts awake at night is the possibility that a coalition of winter bugs, including Covid, could hit the country together and inundate hospitals as happened in 2024 (more of which later).
uncertain
coalition → rise → which
‘Covid is increasing, but from a low level, which is not unexpected at this time of year,’ says Dr Matthew Siggins, lecturer in immunity and infection biology at the University of Surrey.
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Siggins → increase → Surrey
‘The most recent UKHSA data for England show weekly hospital admissions have risen from 0.81 to 1.20 per 100,000, which is still classified as a baseline level.
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which → show → level
The strain dominating infections is XFG, commonly referred to as ‘Stratus’ and nicknamed ‘American Covid’.
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strain → dominate → Stratus
First detected in January 2025, it has spread, both here and in the US, causing many of the familiar symptoms associated with Covid.
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it → detect → Covid
But in addition to coughing and fever, some doctors are reporting gastrointestinal problems among Stratus patients.
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doctors → report → patients
London GP Dr Renée Hoenderkamp says she has noticed a marked change in patients coming through her door complaining of sore throats, headaches, runny noses and fatigue.
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she → say → throats
‘In the past ten days to three weeks in general practice my lists have definitely changed to people with these symptoms,’ she says.
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she → change → symptoms
‘It’s definitely about.’
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It → ’ → ?
Of course, such symptoms could easily be mistaken for any number of seasonal viruses.
uncertain
symptoms → mistake → viruses
‘It’s very flu‑like, actually, which is probably the fairest way to describe it,’ Dr Hoenderkamp says of the latest strain.
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Hoenderkamp → ’ → strain
She suspects she recently had Covid after temporarily losing her sense of taste, but otherwise experienced little more than a runny nose and fatigue.
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she → suspect → nose
‘That’s the reality for most people,’ she says.
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she → ’ → people
One fiftysomething mother-of-two from south-west London, who considers herself impervious to illness, told the Daily Mail how she was ‘floored’ for five days after falling ill last Friday.
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she → consider → days
Although she did not take a Covid test, her illness coincided with the current wave of respiratory infections.
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illness → take → infections
‘I’m never ill – I literally can’t remember the last time I took a sick day,’ she says.
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she → ’m → day
‘But I was absolutely exhausted, with a temperature, cough and really painful flu-like aches in my legs and joints.
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I → exhaust → legs
‘There were times in the morning when I’d think: “I’m fine, get your act together.”
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I → be → act
But by lunchtime I’d have to go back to bed.
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I → have → bed
I slept through a lot of it.’
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I → sleep → it
Her teenage daughter, meanwhile, who fell ill a few days previously, was still ill after ten days.
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who → fall → days
‘She had a really bad headache, sore throat and cough, a raging temperature and was completely exhausted,’ her mother says.
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mother → have → headache
‘She developed an eye infection and a chest infection and eventually we took her to the doctor because we thought: “This is crazy.”
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This → develop → doctor
‘The doctor said she was the third person he’d seen that day with something similar.’
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he → say → something
Professor Emma Wall, a clinical professor of infectious diseases at Queen Mary University of London, says: ‘Some people will be floored by an infection while others remain asymptomatic, and we don’t yet completely understand the biology behind that.
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we → say → that
‘Some people have very effective T-cells [a type of white blood cell] that clear an infection before you know you’ve got it, while in others they can stimulate an inflammatory response to the infection that affects the whole body, which is probably part of what makes some people feel so ill.
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people → have → body
Perhaps the most important context comes from the death toll.
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context → come → toll
The latest readily available UKHSA figures show seven registered deaths involving Covid in England in the week ending August 28, compared with six the previous week.
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figures → show → six
Earlier this year the weekly figure was considerably higher – there were 61 deaths in a week in mid-January.
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figure → be → January
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
