England’s Covid outbreak ISN’T spiralling out of control: ONS now estimates 3,800 people are getting infected each day – up from last week’s claim of 3,700 (and one in 1,900 are currently infected)
- Prevalence of the virus is mostly unchanged since last week, statistics show
- Office for National Statistics report says 0.05 per cent of population infected
- Official daily cases are rising but this may be because tests are working better
The coronavirus outbreak in England is not spiralling out of control and has stabilised again after a rise in July, according to official data.
A report published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there are now around 3,800 people catching the virus each day in the community.
Around one in every 1,900 people is carrying the virus, the report said, and there were an estimated 28,300 people infected at any one time in the first week of August.
Today’s weekly estimate is mostly the same as last week except for a slight rise in the estimated daily new cases, from 3,700 to 3,800.
The ONS suggests 0.05 per cent of the population of England currently has Covid-19.
It said that while recent figures had suggested the percentage of individuals testing positive for Covid-19 in households in England had risen slightly in July, this trend now appears to have levelled off.
Official testing figures have been rising this week, with more than 1,000 cases declared on three occasions in four days after the number not being hit since June.
But experts say this is down to better testing which is finding cases more accurately – they still only appear to account for a quarter of the real number each day.
The ONS report this week used results from 122,021 swab tests taken over six weeks, out of which 58 people tested positive for Covid-19.
People who have coronavirus and are in hospital or care homes are not included in the data.
Lifting lockdown on July 4 – Super Saturday – does not appear to have led to a spike in the numbers of people catching coronavirus, the ONS reports show.
There was a small rise in cases in July – the percentage of people testing positive rose to 0.07 per cent in the week ending July 26 – but this appears to have dropped again.
The percentage has remained below 0.1 per cent – one in every 1,000 people – since May 30, showing there have been no drastic increases.
