VIRUS CASES FALL TO JUST ONE IN 2,200

THE number of Britons infected with coronavirus appears to have reached its lowest level since the early days of the outbreak.

Only one in 2,200 in England had the disease at any point in the second half of last month, according to a large-scale official survey designed to analyse how the virus is spreading. The project, run by the Office for National Statistics, added that only one in every 2,000 were contracting the infection each week.

But the ONS warned that the fall in infections since May has stalled – and the virus is not yet defeated.

‘The decline in the number of people in England testing positive has levelled off in recent weeks,’ it said. ‘Modelling of the incidence rate trend over time suggests that incidence appears to have decreased between mid-May and early June 2020, but it has also since levelled off.’

Boris Johnson based his decision to ease lockdown on ONS estimates showing one in 1,700 in England were infected at any point in mid-June.

The findings appeared to show continuing decline from early June.

However, shortly after the Prime Minister’s announcement, the same survey showed levels of infection were back to one in 1,100.

There is now uncertainty over the ONS estimates because of the low number of positive cases discovered by its tests.

These are carried out in overlapping fortnights and the results are published each week. In the latest test, 23,203 people were tested between June 14 and 27, and only 12 tested positive.