Number of people in England with Covid symptoms rises by just 0.6% in a week

England’s coronavirus outbreak grew by less than one per cent last week according to a symptom tracking app – but an expert insists cases are ‘under control’ and the slight rise has been sparked by schools.

The Covid Symptom Study app estimated there were 3,245 daily symptomatic infections with the virus in the week to March 21, a rise of 0.6 per cent on the 3,226 reported for the week before. This was more than 93 per cent below the peak in January, when there were an estimated 69,000 new infections a day.

Professor Tim Spector, who leads the app, said the figures showed cases were rising slightly ‘off the back of schools reopening’ but that the numbers are ‘currently well under control and aren’t a cause for concern’.

The King’s College London epidemiologist added that cases were rising faster in Wales and Scotland, where schools went back earlier but with a more staggered reopening with only younger year groups asked back at first.

Boris Johnson reopened England’s schools to all pupils on March 8, but they were required to test themselves for the virus twice weekly to avoid other outbreaks.

It comes after official data from Public Health England yesterday suggested cases were rising across a third of England, but that this was linked to a rise among schoolchildren only.

Experts say this rise is linked to kids going back to school and a doubling in the number of tests being done – to an average of 1.1million a day – which is leading to more cases being detected.