Recommendation 136

The second wave of the pandemic was more numerous in terms of hospital admissions and deaths than the first wave. It peaked on 8 January 2021 with 68,053 new infections per day reported in the UK,214 and on 20 January with 1,820 deaths.215 This wave was dominated by the Alpha variant. The Alpha variant was dominant at the time of the peak infections and deaths, and had represented over 50% of UK covid infections from 4 January 2021.216 Of the total deaths during second wave,217 56.9% took place after the Alpha variant was the dominant form.