Pressure to lift lockdown early as infections fall by two thirds

BORIS Johnson faces more pressure to end lockdown early after another infection survey showed Covid cases are continuing to tumble.

Rates have fallen by more than two thirds in England since the middle of January and more than halved in every age group, the study shows.

Researchers from Imperial College London said one in 64 people were infected from January 6 to 22. This plummeted to one in 204 from February 6 to 23, swab samples from 165,456 participants suggest.

Rates were lowest among the over-65s, who are most likely to have been vaccinated.

The findings will be a boost for the Prime Minister’s roadmap to end lockdown on June 21. But the rate of decline appears to be slowing, with the halving time climbing from 15 to 31 days during February. The slowdown is likely to be due to more people venturing outside as they anticipate a relaxation of restrictions, researchers added, but they hope rates will continue to fall even as society opens up.

And the R rate – a measure of how many people an infected person passes the virus on to – is around 0.86 and ‘reliably’ below one, indicating the epidemic is shrinking.

Infection rates vary around the country, with an apparent fall in cases in four regions during February, no change in one and a rise in London and the South East.

The study said there is clear progress but warns: ‘Any large uptick in the prevalence of infections would signal a potential threat to the smooth continuation of the roadmap.’

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith last night called for the ending of lockdown to be accelerated in light of the survey findings. He said: ‘ The Prime Minister has said he will be guided by “data not dates” and all the data is now clearly indicating that the end of lockdown must be brought forward.’

Health Secretary Matt Hancock called the results ‘ encouraging’ but said the slowing progress showed the need to remain vigilant.

Professor Paul Elliott, from Imperial, said: ‘People might think that they can just relax because the vaccine programme is going so well but there is still a lot of virus out there.’ He added: ‘It does need to get a lot lower than one in 200.’