‘High chance’: Professor Whitty warns new variant ‘worse’ than Omicron could soon hit UK

Daily cases of Covid exceeded 100,000 on Thursday and there are no signs the current wave is cresting. The surge in cases is being attributed to the BA.2 Omicron variant – a subvariant of Omicron that is far more transmissible than its predecessor. The emergence of new variants continues to pose a threat to the general public, despite wide vaccination rates.

That’s the chilling assessment put forward by Sir Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer on Thursday.

Professor Whitty warned there is a “high chance” that a new Covid variant which is worse than Omicron will emerge in the next two years.

This makes the next phase of the pandemic fraught with uncertainty, said England’s chief medical officer, hinting at the prospect of future lockdowns if necessary.

Speaking to the Local Government’s Association public health conference, Prof Whitty said there was still a “long way to go” because the virus will continue to “throw surprises”.

He also insisted the virus — which now poses a similar death threat as flu — will be with us “for the rest of our lives”.

The emergence of a more dangerous strain could “significantly change our balance of risk”, Sir Chris added in his speech, which marked the second anniversary of the first coronavirus lockdown.

Sir Chris said the strain could cause “worse problems” than Omicron and the challenges from the current strain are “not by any means trivial”.

Researchers believe one of the main factors behind the current rise in cases and admissions is BA.2, a sublineage of the omicron variant.