The strains descended from the long-dominant JN.1 subvariant and packed genetic machinery linked with higher spread – but there was not yet evidence to suggest they made people sicker than their Omicron predecessors.
“So, I think these things are coming together to indicate we’re possibly heading into a new wave at the moment.”
As for how large that wave would be, Plank expected something of similar scale to recent ones.
The most recent wave, which hit just ahead of the summer holidays, pushed weekly hospitalisations to more than 350 – slightly higher than the peak of the preceding “mini-wave” in April last year.
“We’re in a cycle now where, when we get a wave, a significant number of people will get infected and develop some immunity, but over time, that population-level immunity decreases due to waning and the arrival of new variants,” he said.
“Eventually, we reach a point where that immunity level has dropped low enough that the virus can start to increase - and the cycle begins again.”
This time, he said it was concerning that the wave was taking off as the winter flu season begins for already-stretched hospitals – something likely to mean delayed operations for some patients.
“It’s tricky to predict exactly what the flu season is going to look like, but in June, we could be looking at quite high levels of flu, combined with high levels of Covid – and that will certainly put pressure on hospitals.”
Besides taking usual health precautions, Plank said the best thing people could do to ease that strain was to get vaccinations for both viruses.
“Now’s a really good time to be getting those to reduce the likelihood of getting sick with either Covid or flu during the winter.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.
