29.03.2024

Omicron wave has caused shortages of paracetamol and ibuprofen

Paracetamol is the scarcest item on shop shelves, according to the Office for National Statistics, with low or no stocks at three in 10 stores as the new variant spread.

Shops have been suffering from shortages of paracetamol and ibuprofen during the Omicron wave, new data has revealed.

Meanwhile, a fifth of shops are experiencing shortages of ibuprofen, and supplies of toilet rolls and fresh fish are also low, ONS data up to 10 January found.

Shortages of paracetamol have worsened since the emergence of the Omicron variant, with 15 per cent of shops lacking stocks of the painkiller in November.

Professor Richard Wilding, a supply chain expert at Cranfield University, said Brits having booster vaccines to combat the spread of the new variant along with high levels of cold, flu and Covid is likely to be causing low supplies in shops.

He told The Mirror: “People are having boosters, which probably means there’s going to be an increase in people taking this product, then you’ve got colds, flu and Covid.

“Supply needs to actually catch up with that and work with that… the new normal for supply chains unfortunately is an awful lot of volatility and challenges with that. Products like this are therefore more likely to be disrupted.”

But shortages of over-the-counter medicine are likely to be “local, sporadic and filled within a relatively short time,” according to Michelle Riddalls, head of consumer healthcare body Proprietary Association of Great Britain.

The government’s latest figures show the UK reported 109,133 new coronavirus cases and 335 deaths on Thursday afternoon.

Both infections and deaths are down on the last few days, with cases dropping by around 20,000.

It comes after Covid-related deaths reached their highest number since last February, with 379 and 398 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Is Omicron On The Decline In Colorado?

Who would have thought that sewage could contain good news. Samples taken from the South Platte Renew wastewater treatment site and others are used to determine levels of the coronavirus in the population.

South Platte Renew Director Pieter Van Ry told CBS4, “It seems to indicate the virus has somewhat moved through the community, we’ve reached its peak and is now moving downward in terms of caseload through the community.”

The Omicron variant made its ugly appearance in South Africa and Botswana. It peaked there well before the U.S. and other countries. Now cases have fallen off rapidly there.

So now is the U.S. following in its footsteps?

Van Ry was cautious, “It might be a little bit early to tell, but I will say the most recent data was actually encouraging as it relates to
what we were seeing throughout the fall.”

Their samples of the sewage from Denver’s south and southwestern suburbs is taken from the pipeline. It then goes into an onsite lab where a sample of that is measured. It is then sent to a company in the eastern US that evaluates the virus load.

Rachel Jervis is an epidemiologist with the state of Colorado.

CBS4’s Rick Sallinger asked her, “Could this be the end of the pandemic?”

She answered, “I think that’s unlikely, I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t predict what’s next but I think we still have a ways to go with COVID before we’re done with it.”

Evidence from wastewater plants like South Platte Renew are compared with others to gather the data. It is just one factor along with positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths to consider if the virus is in decline.

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