The numbers dropping means nothing at all as people are not getting tested with PCRs as they used to& many are not reporting the LFTs when they have symptoms. The death rates are still high, too many have dropped mitigations too soon and the elderly & medically vulnerable are dying. We really must take covid seriously.
Over a million have long covid, the BoE has noted there are many out of the work force through illness. There are high rates of heart damage in women showing up months after often a mild infection & the hepatitis in children is likely linked to reinfections with covid. Liver biopsies have shown it.
I have Long Covid and I would be horrified if someone hugged me, although previously I loved hugs. No one knows if they are asymptomatic & a hug to someone vunerable can be deadly. An 80 year old friend, living alone who has shielded herself well for over 2 years had family with children turn up at her door this weekend. She was horrified, crying in despair, and glad to see them. There is a lot of selfishness out there.
We know the BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading and probably overtaking BA.2 this weekend. We have no idea how severe they are but we do know it this variant by passes the vaccines. The medically vulnerable have had their 'letters' telling them what to do if they get infected, and of course to warn them omicron is still spreading. It has over 12 symptoms, listed on NHS site. Re infection weakens people and over 119,000 children have long covid, from re infections.
It really is nothing like other virus we know about, it's was never spreading until late 2019. A new coronavirus is still surprising virologists and reseachers. We really should be wearing masks indoors and ensuring adequate ventilation everywhere. The virus is airborne, can remain in a room for four hours.
Plus try and make sure our children are safe from infection. There's no such thing as 'herd immunity' with covid19. So many are very poorly with long covid and other organ damage to start being relaxed, as until people learn to 'live with masks and testing' which is 'living with covid' we will have this increasing numbers of sick people leaving our economy.