There is a resurgence of Covid cases in the UK, with infections in the over 70s at a record high.
The Office for National Statistics estimates that almost 5% of people in England had Covid in the week ending 12 March, and 3.5% of people in the oldest age group. One in 14 people in Scotland tested positive for an infectious disease.
Reports this week that vaccine immunity declines steeply in care home residents has caused unease. Many people in this age group have had their last vaccine dose.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that older age groups are vulnerable even if they have kept up to date with their vaccines.
The Omicron BA.2 variant is the dominant strain in the UK and is driving the increase in infections. There is good cross-immunity between the two strains.
Everyone who didn't get Omicron the first time around is being swept up. He said that the current wave was more likely to follow a short, sharp trajectory like the one seen in the Netherlands.
He said it wouldn't surprise him if it peaks before the end of March.
Prof James Naismith, a director at the University of Oxford's Rosalind Franklin Institute, said that Scotland has higher prevalence of lung cancer than England.
The reality is that control measures between countries are meaningless. Without vaccines, this would be bleak.
For the UK, my main concern is for the vulnerable, for whom this disease is serious and for those whose lives will be scarred by long Covid. Every effort must be made to triple-vaccinate as many people as possible.
The latest figures show that infections have gone up in most of the UK and in Scotland, the highest they have seen.
The rise of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant is to blame for the increases.
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