A summer resurgence in Covid cases has prompted some GP surgeries to bring back face mask rules for patients — weeks after a new variant was spotted.

One practice in Leicester last week reinstated the guidance, urging people to mask-up, as a ‘precautionary measure’ to protect vulnerable patients.

Another in Essex cautioned that an ‘increasing number of patients and staff with Covid’ had prompted the move. 

A spike in infections across the country has seen Covid hospitalisations in England hit a five-month high. 

Health officials yesterday confirmed that a total of 42 cases of the super-mutated Pirola Covid variant have now been detected in the UK, up from 36 last week. 

Mukta Modi, manager of Canon Street Medical Centre in Leicester told GP magazine Pulse: ‘We are preparing for the autumn vaccination programmes and this is a precautionary measure to protect staff and our vulnerable patients.

‘This has been discussed with our patient participation group who have been very supportive.’

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Local Medical Committee (LMC) chair Dr Grant Ingrams told MailOnline today: ‘Every practice is different with significant variation in the number of staff and patients who are at higher risk of catching Covid or having complications. 

‘In addition, many practices are very short of space meaning that patients have to sit or stand close together in reception and waiting areas.’

He added: ‘Practices are private companies and have a legal duty to protect their staff and patients under Health and Safety Legislation and this includes against infection. 

‘Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland LMC supports all practices to carry out a risk assessment and implement what protection they conclude is needed which may include wearing masks.’

While the true prevalence of the virus is unclear, data from the ZOE Covid study, which tracks self-reported infections, suggests there were 97,904 new daily cases of symptomatic infection on September 13 — almost double the 50,000 it reported at the start of August.

The study, which is based on data from millions of users of the ZOE app, estimates around 1.29million in the UK are currently infected, roughly one in 52 people. 

The figure is the highest for five months, but it is still far lower than the estimated toll during earlier peaks, with it reporting that 3.8million people were infected in April 2022.

Patients had been required to wear face masks in GP surgeries up until June last year.

Updated NHS guidance at the time told practices that patients, apart from those with respiratory symptoms, are ‘not required’ to wear a face mask unless they wish to as a ‘personal preference’.

However, health and care staff were advised to continue to wear face masks as part of PPE when working with suspected or confirmed Covid patients, including those working with untriaged patients in primary care.

It comes as a caller, known only as Caroline, spoke to TalkTV on Wednesday claiming the unnamed GP surgery she works at in Essex had asked staff ‘to mask up again’.

In a message sent out to staff earlier in the week, it said: ‘Due to an increasing number of patients and staff with Covid, I’m afraid we need to ask you to mask up again at work from tomorrow. 

‘Hopefully by wearing them again during the surge we can protect and look after each other and provide an example to patients.’

The message also confirmed the practice would review ‘mask wearing on a regular basis’, she claimed.

She told TalkTV: ‘I did message back and said I wouldn’t be wearing them and I would try and keep my distance if they were worried.

‘They also wanted us to start testing again if we feel unwell.’ 

In recent weeks scientists have recommended a return of pandemic mitigation measures, including mask wearing, and increased ventilation because of the virus’ resurgence. 

Some virologists have also urged Ministers to re-consider vaccine eligibility criteria, after the Government ditched plans last month to offer Covid vaccines to under 65s under the autumn jab rollout which began on Monday.

Despite some experts questioning whether they were ever necessary, studies have repeatedly shown mask wearing can reduce the transmission of the virus.  

Last month, a report by the Royal Society also found ‘mask wearing and mask mandates were an effective approach to reduce infection’.

Researchers said studies consistently reported the measures were an effective approach to reduce infection, despite officials issuing mixed messages about their effectiveness at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Other evidence from studies in healthcare settings also showed that higher-quality ‘respirator’ masks — such as N95 masks — were ‘more effective than surgical-type masks’, they added. 

However researchers noted that as the pandemic progressed and the virus became more transmissible, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) became less effective in controlling the spread of the virus. 

It comes after UKHSA data yesterday showed that Covid hospitalisations are at their highest level since April.

Admissions among patients who tested positive for the virus stood at 4.6 per 100,000 people in the week to September 10, official figures show.

This is up from 3.7 per 100,000 the previous week and the highest since the week ending April 30.

This is still a fraction of the level reached last winter, when the rate stood at 11.8 per 100,000. It is also well below the figures seen during the first year of the pandemic. 

The rate has been on a clear upwards trend for the past two months, however. 

Rates remain highest among people aged 85 and over, at 51.1 per 100,000, and 75 to 84-year-olds, at 21.2 per 100,000.

Experts predict Covid cases will continue to rise as the UK heads into the autumn, and people mix more indoors.

Brits are also no longer testing en masse like they were earlier in the pandemic — with community testing ending in May 2022. 

Therefore, confirmed cases are an underestimate of how many Britons are infected with Covid and how many of those have the new variant Pirola. 

Yesterday UKHSA confirmed a total of 42 cases of the super-mutated strain, known scientifically as BA.2.86, have now been detected in the UK, up from 36 last week. 

Of England’s 37 cases, spotted as of September 11, seven had been hospitalised, while two were detected among A&E patients. No deaths have been recorded among those infected. 

Some 5 BA.2.86 cases have been reported by Public Health Scotland. No Pirola cases have been detected in Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Pirola, like other recently emerged Covid variants, is a spin-off of the Omicron strain.

However, its host of mutations, 35 in total, sparked alarm with some experts fearing it would be different enough to effectively dodge the protection offered by Covid vaccines and infection from previous waves. 

The UKHSA said it is currently analysing blood samples taken from NHS workers to test how effective the immune response generated by Covid jabs is against Pirola.

Experiments to determine how effective lateral flow tests are at spotting Pirola are also still underway. 

More than 30 cases of the Pirola Covid variant have been spotted in the UK, health chiefs revealed today.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed that 36 cases of the strain, scientifically known as BA.2.86, have been spotted, up from just three a week ago. 

Two are in Scotland while 34 are in England. 

Of the cases in England, 28 came from a single outbreak in a care home in Norfolk, which infected 87 per cent of residents and left one hospitalised.

Health chiefs said this signals a ‘high attack rate’ and could be an early indicator that the strain spreads easily indoors. 

In total, five people with confirmed Pirola infections have so far required hospitalisation, though UKHSA analysts said no deaths have been recorded.

Experts told MailOnline the data suggests that the Omicron sub-variant is more transmissible than its predecessors but that it is no more severe.

UKHSA said it was notified about the care home outbreak on August 21.

All residents and staff took PCR Covid tests which were sent to labs for analysis.

Results showed that 87 per cent of residents were infected, whilst 12 staff also tested positive. 

One resident was hospitalised and four remain unwell. 

Health chiefs are spooked over the variant’s high number of mutations.

These signal that the variant could potentially be more infectious or be different genetically enough from previous variants that the protection offered by jabs or prior infection is significantly reduced. 

But the UKHSA said it will be ‘some time’ before it knows how quickly the variant is spreading, how effective it is at making people ill and how good it is at dodging immunity from jabs or previous infections. 

Dr Renu Bindra, UKHSA incident director, said the agency is working with scientists around the globe to study the strain.

The agency is advising Norfolk County Council on its outbreak to curb the spread of the infection, she said.

Dr Bindra urged people to come forward for Covid vaccine drive, which was recently accelerated to launch on Monday due to fears surrounding Pirola. 

‘It remains vital that all those eligible come forward to receive their autumn vaccine as soon as it is offered to them,’ she said.

Reacting to the UKHSA report Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, said: ‘It does indicate that the general trend we have seen since variants arose, towards transmissibility rather than pathology, is holding and that we can reasonably expect the same to be true of the variants to come.’ 

Professor Paul Hunter, a respected infectious disease specialist at the University of East Anglia, also told MailOnline that while ‘early days’ the fact only one person in the care home outbreak required hospitalisation ‘doesn’t raise any red flags’.

Apart from the care home outbreak, all the other Pirola cases are unlinked, suggesting Pirola is spreading in the community, the UKHSA said.

The agency’s Pirola cases only reflect a fraction of the true toll. 

Brits are no longer testing en masse like they were earlier in the pandemic — with community mass testing ending in May 2022.

Therefor it is unclear how many Brits are infected with Covid and how many of those have Pirola.  

While only two cases have been confirmed in Scotland, more are suspected. Traces of the variant being found in wastewater analysis by Scottish authorities. 

No Pirola cases have been detected in Wales or Northern Ireland. 

While the prevalence of the virus is unclear, data from the ZOE Covid study, which tracks self-reported infections, suggests there were 100,516 new cases of symptomatic infection on September 6 — double the 50,000 it reported at the start of August.

The study, which is based on data from millions of users of the ZOE app, estimates around 1.2million in the UK are currently infected, roughly one in 57 people. 

The figure is the highest for five months but it is still far lower than the estimated toll during earlier peaks, with it reporting that 3.8million people were infected in April 2022.

Experts predict Covid cases will continue to rise as the UK heads into the autumn, as people mix more indoors.

This could exacerbate NHS pressures, with the season traditionally a busier period for the health service than summer. 

The UKHSA’s report today also included an analysis of the Pirola cases which have undergone genetic trusting.

Results suggests several slightly different Pirola strains have entered Britain multiple times from overseas, rather than in one singular superspreader case.

Tests include whether the closely related ‘Kraken’ variant — which arrived in the UK in the first half of 2023 — offers some protection from Pirola.

They are also analysing how accurate the current generation of lateral-flow-tests are at detecting a Pirola infection.

UKHSA is also working with other British scientists on determining how fast Priola could spread and how effective the current batch of Covid jabs are against the heavily mutated variant. 

Globally, the variant has been spotted in more than dozen countries, including the US, Denmark, South Africa, Portugal, Sweden, Canada, France and Switzerland.

The variant’s meteoric rise on the global stage and its host of over 35 mutations has sparked alarm among scientists.

Such concerns prompted the Department of Health and Social Care to accelerate the autumn Covid and flu jab drive.

Annual vaccinations for care home residents and vulnerable adults, who are at most risk of a severe infection, were due to start in October.

However, they will now start from Monday in a bid to boost protection earlier in the year amid fears that Pirola could trigger a fresh wave.

Ministers said they had made the decision to reduce pressure on the health service while scientists rush to learn more about the variant.

But virologists have warned it is too early to pinpoint whether BA.2.86 triggers more severe illness than earlier versions of the virus, as scientists are still analysing recently discovered cases.

Professor Francois Balloux, an infectious disease expert based at University College London told MailOnline: ‘Based on the tiny number of BA.2.86 cases diagnosed to date there is no evidence for, but also no reason to expect, a significant shift in symptoms.’

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, said that a combination of immunity induced by previous infections, Covid vaccinations and ‘a combination of changes in the virus’ has seen Covid symptoms alter over the last three years. 

‘It’s much more like a cold now than when we first experienced Covid,’ he said.

Early results from a US lab earlier this week suggested Pirola may not be as dangerous as initially feared.

The research, published by the Dan Barouch Lab, part of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard University School of Medicine, analysed how well the immune system of the 66 participants fought-off 10 Omicron subvariants, including BA.2.86. 

They found that antibodies — proteins that protect against infection — were less effective against Pirola than its ancestor BA.2.

However, when compared to other Omicron variants currently circulating, the results were similar, suggesting Pirola is no better at dodging immunity.

While this won’t stop people from catching the virus, it suggests the UK’s wall of immunity — built up from waves of infection and vaccine rollouts — should help prevent a dramatic spike in people from becoming severely ill.

• Experts say diets high in red meat, salt and alcohol are fulling cancer rise 
• Cancer Research UK says advances in care helped save 1.2 million lives in the UK 

By Kate Pickes For Daily Mail

Updated: 18:50 EDT, 5 September 2023

• Data shows cases have increased by 50,000 in September from start of August
• The rise in cases comes alongside the emergence of a new Covid variant 

By Kate Pickles Health Editor

Updated: 02:46 EDT, 4 September 2023

By Australian Associated Press

Updated: 06:02 EDT, 23 August 2023

By Rachel Ellis

Published: 20:02 EDT, 21 August 2023 | Updated: 21:00 EDT, 21 August 2023

• Cases of rickets in Scotland surged 25 per cent from 354 in 2018 to 442 in 2022
• Scotland saw almost as many cases of rickets as the whole of England in 2022

By Mark Howarth

Published: 20:48 EDT, 20 August 2023 | Updated: 20:59 EDT, 20 August 2023

The number of neighbourhoods hit by Covid outbreaks in England has doubled in a fortnight, MailOnline can reveal amid fears the ‘real deal’ variant may be sweeping the country.

Nearly 600 districts reported clusters in the week to August 12, up from just 270 two weeks earlier.

Hospital admissions are also rising sharply, sparking concerns that the UK is on the brink of another wave just as the country heads into the autumn when the NHS gets busier.

Experts have speculated bad weather over the past few weeks and even the ‘Barbenheimer effect’ – referring to the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer – might have also contributed to the rise in infections, as well as waning immunity from jab roll-outs.

But the uptick coincides with the arrival of Eris, a variant which already makes up one in four new cases. 

Another heavily-mutated strain dubbed the ‘real deal’, which has spooked experts and already prompted calls for the return of face masks, was today confirmed to be in Britain. Genetic tests revealed an unidentified patient in a London hospital had BA.X, otherwise known as BA.2.86. 

Alarm bells were raised because they are thought to have caught the strain within the UK. No links were found to four other cases logged worldwide, in the US, Denmark and Israel.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from the University of Reading, told MailOnline: ‘We can be pretty sure that it’s circulating in the population more widely. 

‘What we don’t know is by how much or in whom and we don’t know how much of a problem it’s going to cause as we move towards autumn and winter.’

Health chiefs don’t know when BA.X reached Britain. It could have silently spreading for weeks. 

UK Health Security Agency statistics show that 589 out of 6,500 neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the week to August 12.

For comparison, just 58 areas had reached this threshold — given to protect the anonymity of patients sickened in tiny clusters — at the start of July. 

MailOnline analysis shows the figure has gradually increased week-on-week since then, hitting 270 on July 29 and 448 on August 5.

It means the number of regions in England hit by Covid has more than doubled in a fortnight and surged 10-fold in five weeks.

The figures only reflect the tip of the iceberg, however. 

Barely any Covid cases are logged nowadays because of the decision to bin the multi-billion pound mass-testing scheme in April 2022, in acknowledgement that the darkest days of the UK’s virus crisis were over. Infection rates are, therefore, not neccessarily an accurate reflection of the current picture.

However, testing levels have remained stable over the past few months. 

Around 5,000 lateral flow test results and 2,700 PCR readings have been uploaded per day in the last week.

Positive test results are reported by the minority of the public still eligible for a free Covid test or have taken a PCR swab — such as health and social care workers, anyone with underlying health conditions.

The UKHSA data also includes results from labs that process privately-purchased PCR tests, which share findings with the Government. 

The toll of affected neighbourhoods is still a fraction of levels seen at the height of the pandemic. 

In early 2021, when the nation had battled through its first winter with Covid circulating, more than 5,300 local authorities reported cases and at much higher levels.

In the latest week, rates were highest in Horsham, West Sussex, where 106 infections were confirmed per 100,000 people.

Virus levels were also high in Weston Town, North Somerset (102), Porthleven, Breage and Praa Sands in Cornwall (102) and East Saltdean and Telscombe Cliffs in Lewes (101).

Meanwhile, Covid-positive admissions hit 3 per 100,000 people in England in the week to August 13, up from 1.2 just four weeks earlier.

Virologists are unsettled by BA.X because of the catalogue of mutations it carries on its spike protein, the piece of the coronavirus that vaccines were designed to target. 

Experts, however, have warned it’s far too early to panic. No evidence shows BA.X is any more of a threat than the dozens of strains that have come before it.

Immunity levels built-up through vaccine roll-outs and previous waves remain high and, over time, the virus has evolved to become less deadly and resemble something closer to that of the flu.

Other variants flagged as troublesome have just fizzled out naturally.

Ministers have vowed they will never deploy curbs wielded during the darkest days of the crisis in 2020 and 2021 unless a doomsday variant emerges which sends the world back to square one.

Alarm bells over the strain were first rung earlier this week, after a prominent online virus-tracker spotted cases initially crop up in Denmark. The discovery came just a day after the same lineage was detected in Israel. 

Yesterday, variant trackers online also suggested a fourth case had been spotted in Michigan.

The strain is classed as a ‘currently circulating variant under monitoring’ by the World Health Organization.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and lead for the Covid response at the WHO, cautioned there is very limited information available on the strain.

But she said it needs monitoring due to its large number of mutations.

Surveillance and sequencing is ‘critical’ to detect new variants and track known ones, she added. 

Dr Meera Chand, deputy director of the UKHSA told MailOnline: ‘We are aware that BA.2.86 has been detected in the UK.

‘UKHSA is assessing the situation and will provide further information in due course.’

Meanwhile, Professor Francois Balloux, a vocal Covid commentator throughout the pandemic, from University College London, labelled BA.2.86 ‘the most striking strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron’.

He said: ‘Even in the worst case scenario where BA.2.86 caused a major new wave of cases, we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.

‘Most people on earth have now been vaccinated and/or infected by the virus.

‘Even if people get reinfected by BA.2.86, immune memory will still allow their immune system to kick in and control the infection far more effectively.’

Professor Balloux added, however: ‘A large wave of infection by BA.2.86, or any future comparable variant, would be an unwelcome event.’ 

The national bowel cancer screening programme has led to a ‘critical’ reduction in cases, a major study reveals.

Experts described the checks as ‘life-saving’ and urged people to participate when invited to do so by the NHS.

The tests identify abnormalities and help doctors find pre-cancerous polyps, which can often be removed before they develop into tumours.

The incidence of bowel cancer in the lowermost portion of the large bowel has decreased by 15 per cent following the introduction of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) in 2006.

The biggest reductions have been observed in men and in patients living in areas of greatest socioeconomic deprivation, according to the findings published in the journal Colorectal Disease.

Screening was expanded in 2010 to cover all adults aged 60 to 74 registered with a GP in England and will be expanded again to cover adults aged over 50 by 2025.

Adults in this age group are automatically sent an NHS bowel cancer screening kit, known as a faecal immunohistochemical test (FIT), every two years.

Screening involves taking a small stool sample at home and posting it back to a laboratory, where it is checked for traces of blood, which may be a sign of cancer.

Those with abnormal results will be invited for further checks, such as a colonoscopy, during which pre-cancerous growths or cancer may be found.

Researchers from the University of Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust analysed data from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service database.

They identified 541,515 adults diagnosed with bowel cancer of screening age (60-74 years) between 2001 and 2017.

Of these, 44 per cent of patients had tumours of the uppermost portion of the large bowel and 56 per cent had tumours of the lowermost portion.

While the incidence rate of bowel cancer initially peaked in the years following the introduction of the BCSP, it subsequently decreased with the greatest reduction in incidence being observed in tumours of the lowermost portion of the large bowel.

In 2001, the incidence of tumours of the lowermost portion of bowel was 11 per cent higher in patients from the most deprived compared to the least deprived areas, reducing to 4 per cent by 2017.

Furthermore, men were also noted to have experienced a greater reduction than women over time-period of the study for tumours of both the uppermost and lowermost portions of the large bowel.

Adam Chambers, one of the study’s lead authors, said: ‘Our results show that one of the benefits of screening people for bowel cancer is that there is a significant lowering of colorectal cancer incidence rates that is primarily driven by detecting and removing pre-cancerous polyps at colonoscopy.

‘Future work should be focused on reducing the incidence of tumours of the uppermost portion of the large bowel by increasing screening uptake through use of the new faecal immunohistochemical test (FIT) and improving the quality of colonoscopy.

‘We welcome the reduction in the screening age threshold, as our research group have previously demonstrated that bowel cancer incidence is rapidly increasing in young adults.’

There are almost 43,000 bowel cancer diagnoses and 16,800 deaths each year in the UK.

More than nine out of ten new cases (94 per cent) are diagnosed in people over the age of 50 but bowel cancer cancer affect anyone of any age.

Dr Lisa Wilde, director of research and external affairs at Bowel Cancer UK, says: ‘Screening is one of the best ways to detect bowel cancer early, and in some cases prevent it from developing in the first place.

‘This research reinforces the importance of screening for bowel cancer and shows the potential impact of future improvements to the screening programme to make it more effective.

‘Sadly only one in ten patients are diagnosed with bowel cancer through the national bowel cancer screening programmes in England and Wales.

‘Screening can detect bowel cancer or pre-cancer before symptoms appear, so if you’re invited for screening, please do take part, as it could save your life.

‘And if you’ve lost your kit or thrown it away you can request a new one by visiting the NHS bowel cancer screening website.’

Not a single airline is fined in 20 years despite numerous cases of ‘unlawful behaviour’ due to a regulatory failure

• Consumer champion Which? said the CAA ‘should be doing more’ 

By Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor For The Daily Mail

Published: 20:56 EDT, 29 June 2023 | Updated: 21:04 EDT, 29 June 2023