Covid 19 infections may be receding in the UK - but the virus is very much here to stay.

All the compulsory masks requirements have been removed, free lateral flow tests have been stopped.

Covid 19 is to reamin with us to remain with us for decades

So what will it mean to live with the Covid 19 virus in the longer term?

Risk from covid 19 virus;

Covid can still kill.

With vaccinations, treatment. drugs and a population happy with mass testing, the chances of getting ill and not surviving are much lower than in earlier waves.

Ministers have told the public they need to live with coronavirus and treat it like flu.

Health ministers stress if you catch Covid 19 to stay off work, away from vulnerable people and where possible reduce the infection from spreading.

The message is to stay off work or away from vulnerable people if you have symptoms - whether it's Covid or flu, there a need to minimise the risk of infecting others.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a continued fall from a recent peak in April.

The warm summer means more people will congregate outdoors at lower risk to themselves. But an uptick of international travel means returning with Covid 19 variant increasingly likely.

But the return o holidays to work and study after summer Omicron BA.2: What we know about the Covid sub-variant Now two newer members of the Omicron family - BA.4 and BA.5 - are thought to have contributed to a new wave in South Africa. Experts are still assessing whether they spread faster than their predecessors. Prof Peter Openshaw, of Imperial College, London, said: "Everyone is thinking of sub-variants - we just don't know whether they will cause a surge in infections and where they will go in the UK." He added that existing immunity was important. But this would help protect against serious illness much more than the risk of getting an infection in the first place. Longer term The assumption with viruses is that they evolve and become milder over time, with Spanish flu after World War One quoted as an example. However, experts say this is not guaranteed. Prof Mike Tildesley, of the University of Warwick, and one of the key modellers of the spread of Covid in the UK, says the virus may evolve rapidly, but "this is not nailed on - it might only happen over the long term". He believes the next two to five years will be uncertain.