According to today’s official data, the number of Covid infections has fallen for a sixth day in a row. In addition, the most recent data available shows that Covid hospital admissions have fallen by 2%, while the death rate remains flat with no sign of a dramatic upward trend. The MailOnline has the story.
Bosses at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate that around one in 50 people — the equivalent of 1,102,800 — would have tested positive on any given day during the seven-day spell ending October 22nd. It claims infections have risen by almost 13% in a week, soaring to a level not seen since the darkest days of Britain’s pandemic crisis in early January.
Meanwhile, separate data from the UK Health Security Agency, which took over from the now-defunct PHE, today showed that the R rate also rose and is now thought to be around 1.1 to 1.3, up from 1.0 to 1.2. It means for every 10 people infected, between 11 and 13 others will get the virus.
However, both estimates are based on old data and the fresher Government statistics show the country’s outbreak has already started to shrink, even before children broke up for half-term.
Today’s Government figures take Britain’s total Covid death toll to 140,392, with more than 8.98 million having been infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic.
No10’s advisers said it was likely that cases would eventually fizzle out in children because they have built-up such high levels of immunity following the back-to-class wave. They also claimed half-term would act as a natural fire-breaker by curbing indoor mixing of children.
‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson, an Epidemiologist who sits on SAGE, yesterday argued ‘Plan B’ — which would see the return of face masks and work from home guidance if the NHS becomes overwhelmed — “shouldn’t be necessary”, if cases keep dropping and the booster roll-out continues at speed.
Separate data from the country’s largest symptom-tracking study yesterday suggested Britain is ‘worryingly close’ to recording 100,000 new Covid infections per day. Professor Tim Spector, the Epidemiologist running the study, suggested the official Government daily count could be vastly underestimating the extent of Covid prevalence.
It comes as Health Secretary Sajid Javid today called on all secondary school and college students to get tested regardless of symptoms before they return to classrooms next week. ONS data showed 9.1% of children in years seven to 11 had the virus on any given day last week.
Mr Javid said: “it is vital that they are taking free and easy rapid tests that will help detect Covid infections from those who are not showing symptoms to keep the virus at bay.”
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