Why Rising COVID Cases Suggest You Shouldn’t Leave Online Events Behind

You might have assumed for a while now that the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced sufficiently in intensity to render many of the old rules and restrictions redundant. Surely social distancing is no longer something that needs to be routinely adhered to? However, while the COVID crisis is certainly not as serious as it once was, rising COVID cases in recent weeks hint that, if you are about to attend an event, it should probably be an online one. Yes, COVID Cases Have Been Rising Again “Generally, what happens in the UK is reflected about a month later in the US. I think this is what I’ve sort of been seeing,” Kings College London professor of genetic epidemiology Dr Tim Spector has told CNN. Spector runs the Zoe Health Study, where people in the UK and US can log their daily COVID symptoms. “Our current data is definitely showing this is the beginning of the next wave,” Spector revealed, with COVID cases reported via the study having recently grown by 30%. An increase, albeit not as large as the one reported in the study, has since emerged in official UK government data as well. This data confirms the reliability of predictions made earlier by modellers. “They predicted that we’d get a June to July peak and then there’d be a month where nothing happened in August and then it would flatten in August and September and then start again in October. So it’s exactly matching what the modellers have been predicting,” Spector reflected. How Might The COVID Situation Continue To Unfold? Some models have predicted that, in the US, COVID cases will start rising again in October and sustain an increase as the season changes to winter. However, it remains unclear exactly why COVID cases in the UK are rising and whether they will continue doing so. COVID isn’t the only infectious disease currently posing a major threat to the UK. It is thought that flu and other respiratory illnesses will bounce back this winter after their spread was previously hindered as a result of lockdowns and social distancing rules during the pandemic. According to studies conducted early in the pandemic and cited by Sky News, people who are infected with both flu and COVID simultaneously face about double the risk of death compared to people who catch only COVID-19. Hopefully, You Aren’t Too Out Of Practice With Online Events… Though there are, of course, vaccines for both flu and COVID, it would be convenient for you to avoid becoming infected with either illness if practically possible. Besides, if you do discover that you are infected, it would be kind for you to avoid turning up in person at an event where you could easily spread the illness. Fortunately, whether or not you became accustomed to participating in online events back in 2020 or 2021, you could easily implement an online events strategy. A live webcast platform, for example, can faithfully replicate many familiar aspects of the in-person event experience.