East Riding residents encouraged to get Autumn booster vaccine
It's as there are new variants – BA.4 and BA.5 - of the virus that are spreading
As the number of coronavirus cases continue to drop across the East Riding, we’re still being encouraged to get the booster vaccine.
It is as there are new variants - BA.4 and BA.5 - of the virus that are spreading.
Zoe Stevens is a public health nurse consultant for East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
She says there has been a slight increase of hospitalisations relating to these: "We need to keep ahead of this variant and make sure that we vaccinate as many people as possible, because we know the protection we get from that is effective in managing these strains as well.
"There's a likelihood that we could well end up in having another surgence and seeing an increase in numbers, particularly as vaccines start to wean and people's immunity fades as we go into the Winter months and the return of seasonal flu as well, there's a likelihood we could see a surge in Covid.
"We did see a real surge in numbers because of the transmissability of the number two variant did cause a real increase in numbers, but what we do know is that the severity of the illness that people experienced was a lot less than in previous variants."