Thread by @john_actuary

The latest Variant Technical Bulletin shows how BA.2 is now dominant across all of England, with the South West highest - we've also see that admissions growth has been fastest there too.
(Note the x-axis scale though, the range is smaller than it immediately appears.)

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And here's why - with data showing that the secondary attack rate in both household and non-household settings is higher for BA.2 than for its older sibling BA.1.

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And the result of that is shown here, where we can see how BA.1, which burst on to the scene in early Dec has rapidly been usurped first by BA.1.1, and more recently by BA.2.

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Fortunately the report notes that there's no evidence that BA.2 results in a higher rate of serious illness (ie hospitalisation), but it's greater transmissibility means more infections, so that still means more admissions (and potential longer term illness, admitted or not).
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A big shout out to all the team at UKHSA who continue to produce these excellent briefings (along with their other publications) on a regular basis.
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…