This is the Guardian. No, you're not imagining it.

COVID is definitely back.

Now you might have noticed the word COVID creeping into conversation more and more what

cases are on the rise. Here in the UK infection levels have been going up fast. They

jumped 30% in a week at the end of June.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show

just to under 2.3 million people were estimated

to have the disease in the week to June the 24th.

It might not seem that surprising when there are two new sub-variants, B-A-4 and B-A-5 on the loose,

and many of us are heading to bars, pubs, festivals and sports events as the summer months roll on.

But unfortunately hospitalizations with COVID are also rising and they're expected to keep going up in the weeks ahead.

So how bad will things get in this latest wave and are these endless cycles of rising and

falling infections what living with COVID looks like.

I'm In sample, the Guardian Science Editor, and this is Science Weekly. Grand Medley, you're Professor of Infectious Disease Modeling at the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Let's start with

where we are with COVID right now. Can we call this a new wave yet?

Absolutely it's a new wave so what we've seen in the past almost year is that new variants have arisen with various characteristics such as higher transmissibility or the ability to overcome existing immunity. Now with these new variants, B. A4 and B. A5, they are causing a new

wave at the moment.

And how much our case is going up?

They're going up exponentially and that means they sort of double in constant doubling time.

There might be some suggestion that they started to turn over and reach a peak in terms of infections but hospitalizations are still increasing.

I think last time I looked we were up to sort of a thousand a day of people who were being admitted hospital. Of course some of those are with COVID rather than of COVID so the infection is not necessarily causing the underlying disease.

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