A report to the country’s ongoing battle with Covid showed that the rate of virus infection in England was significantly reduced before lockdown.
A study has found that the rate of Covid-19 in England was reduced significantly before lockdown lifted. According to the research from Imperial College London, the rate of infection throughout the country fell down every eight to nine days during May.
Infection rate fell down in England
The average 13 positive cases for every 10,000 people is lower than reporting before. The overall reproduction number is 0.57.
Researchers tested aged over five across the country for Covid-19 for more than 120,000 volunteers.
It found that about 69% of those who tested positive reported there were no symptoms on the day of the test. Although they may have developed symptoms later.
The report provides people who were infected with the virus between May 1 and June 1. It’s also compared between geography, age, ethnicity, sex, key worker status and symptoms.
The study on infection rate
The study found people who aged 18 to 24 more likely to test positive than other age groups. People of Asian ethnicity were also more likely to test positive than those of white ethnicity.
While people working in care homes were at greater risk of being infected during lockdown than the general population. Beside that, the report also showed anyone who had recent contact with a known Covid-19 case was 24 times more likely to test positive than those with no such contact.
The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the study was crucial to the country’s ongoing battle with this pandemic. He said “This ambitious testing programme will help us better understand the spread of the virus to date, predict how it may spread in the future and inform our response to the pandemic. It shows the impact our national lockdown efforts have had and demonstrates that we have taken the right actions at the right time. As a country we have made great strides towards beating this virus but we mustn’t take our foot off the pedal, and such studies will be vital as we continue to fight this virus.”
The study itself will be upscaled and repeated before the final report is published. The next step is under way for a second large-scale study. It will use antibody tests to determine how much of the general public has been infected with Covid-19 in the past.
