7 in 10 virus suf ferers do not have any symptoms

SEVEN out of ten people infected with coronavirus have never shown any symptoms of illness, a major study said yesterday.

The finding, based on tests carried out on 50,000 people over the past two months, suggests a large majority of the population may have had Covid-19 without realising.

But researchers from the Office for National Statistics, which carried out the analysis, said social distancing restrictions are still needed because those who don not develop symptoms can pass infection on to others who are less resistant.

The study also said that around one in 15 people may have developed antibodies that will shield them from contracting Covid-19 in future.

But researchers warned that it is too early to draw judgments on how many people may have developed defences against the illness.

The project, run by the ONS together with independent academics, has estimated an R number – a figure indicating the rate at which coronavirus is spreading – which ministers will use to decide how and when lockdown restrictions will be eased or removed.

But researchers said they will not publish their estimate to avoid public confusion.

Instead, they have passed it on to the Whitehall SAGE committee which is advising the Government.

Yesterday’s findings showed that the effects of coronavirus in England are ‘relatively stable’, the ONS said.

Around one in 400 people were infected at any given time in the two weeks in which the latest phase of the survey was being carried out, between 11 May and 24 May, the report said.

About 8,000 people were newly infected every day, it found, and about 133,000 have the virus at any one time.

The study provided strong evidence that the lockdown and Government advice to stay at home may have had a major effect on restricting the spread of the virus.

People working away from home are more than three times more likely to be infected than those working at home, it said.

During the two mid-May weeks, 0.71 per cent of people who were working away from home contracted Covid-19 against just 0.23 per cent of those working from home.

‘Individuals working outside the home show higher rates of positive tests than those who work from home,’ the ONS said.

Healthcare and social care workers in direct contact with patients are also more likely to be infected, it added. The finding that large numbers who are infected may never develop symptoms was estimated from new evidence which showed that during the two mid-May weeks.

The ONS said: ‘Out of those people that tested positive over the study period, only 21 per cent reported experiencing one or more of the various symptoms at the time of their test. Out of those who reported testing positive, 30 per cent reported experiencing symptoms at any point over the course of the study period.’

Professor Sarah Walker of Oxford University, one of the researchers running the project, said she was confident the tests themselves were reliable and there was a low likelihood of false positive tests.

Peter Benton, of the ONS, said: ‘For me personally I could be positive but I don’t know whether I will pass it on. Anybody else could also be positive and asymptomatic and they could pass it on.’

Of 885 people who gave blood tests around one in 15, 6.78 per cent, tested positive for antibodies for Covid-19 and may therefore have built up immunity to future infection. .

The results were based on tests performed on 18,913 people in 8,799 households in England.

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‘Effects of Covid relatively stable’