COVID-19 Virus (img: Freepik)

The SARS-CoV-2 may be becoming just another respiratory bug, along with flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rhinovirus and adenovirus, experts in the United Kingdom contended.

With 2,257 cases being recorded daily, the UK is currently seeing a fresh rise in COVID-19 infections. The related-hospitalisation is also at a five-month high with 3,366 patients, the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) report said.

These numbers are still far below levels seen during the pandemic. Covid is “well on the way” to becoming seasonal, a professor and expert on infectious-diseases at a university in Norwich, UK, was quoted as per reports.

The professor said that flu is likely to cause more deaths from now on, while COVID-19 will eventually become “just another cause of the common cold”, like the other coronaviruses that circulate.

“COVID-19 not as deadlier as before”

During the winter of 2022, there were estimated to be more flu deaths than COVID-19 ones in England, just over 14,000, compared with 10,000, the UKHSA said.

The immunity to serious illness built up from vaccination and infection means the death rate per Covid infection is now well below that of flu, the professor said.

However, another professor, who advised the government during the pandemic, agrees there are positive signs but remains a little more cautious, as per reports.

“We are seeing hints of seasonality but I wouldn’t say we’re definitely there,” he said. He pointed out there is still much more data on COVID-19 than other respiratory viruses.

UK to face another COVID-19 wave?

The UKHSA has warned people in the country to brace for another bout of infections due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus this winter.

The agency maintained that cases will “further increase” as the season progresses, along with other “winter respiratory viruses like flu”.

A modeller in infectious diseases and a professor in a university in Coventry,UK, said that COVID-19 could still end up causing more deaths than flu this winter. “There was quite a rebound for flu last year,” he said, and added, “partly because immunity was down following a few years of not much flu circulating , so we may see the picture change this winter."

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

For more such updates and news on the go, follow us on

Instagram | YouTube | Facebook