A new wave of coronavirus is expected to hit the East Riding in the coming weeks as infections have started to increase.
Health bosses in the East riding say they are seeing signs of new wave of COVID infections.
Whilst the numbers of cases are currently nothing like previous waves, East Riding Council’s Public Health Director Andy Kingdom says it is still a concern.
Around 7 thousand people in the county are thought to be currently infected.
Andy Kingdom says with more working age people being infected there could be an increase in staff absences in the area.
He's also concerned about care homes.
Mr Kingdom added hospital patient and death numbers were expected to rise by mid-July but the size of the wave would be smaller than previous ones.
He added that the East Riding would likely be one of the last to be hit by the new wave.
It follows a rise in infections which is already working its way across London, the South East and parts of Yorkshire and the Humber.
The director said:
“The situation now is that we’re all standing in a sea of infections where coronavirus is one among many illnesses and diseases.
“Before the coronavirus waves knocked a lot of people over who we had to take out of that sea because our immune systems couldn’t cope with it.
“Now we have the vaccines and greater immunity but we’re still in that sea and we’ll still get waves, although coronavirus is just another virus now.
“We’re expecting more waves but they won’t be as big because of our levels of immunity.
“Infections are rising in working age groups because they had their third jabs in around November and December so the effectiveness is beginning to wane.
“Despite the increase in infections we’re not yet seeing cases translate into big hospital numbers, the amount of patients with coronavirus in our hospitals is in the 20s to 30s.
“But if more working age people are catching coronavirus it will mean less staff are able to work, including care staff.
“We’re expecting the number of cases to rise in the next couple of weeks but we won’t be seeing waves as big as those we’ve had before.
“We’re a lot better at spotting outbreaks where they do happen now, but people still need to take coronavirus seriously.
“There’s people who are still at risk from the virus, it hasn’t gone away and it never will.”
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