Just 0.25% of Britons are now infected

JUST one in 400 Britons outside hospitals or care homes were infected with coronavirus at any one point in the first weeks of May, official assessments show.

A snapshot by the Office for National Statistics found that 137,000 – 0.24 per cent of the population – had the virus.

They found there were no differences in infection rates among different age groups, or between men and women.

The surveys – taken between May 4 and May 17 – also suggest that frontline NHS or care home workers are no longer more likely to be infected than others. This is a dramatic reversal of findings in a similar survey carried out by the ONS in late April and early May when doctors, nurses and care workers were found to be six times more likely to test positive.

The ONS could not explain the shift in the pattern of infection. But the change may be linked to an increased availability of personal protective equipment for frontline workers. Its report said: ‘There is no evidence of a difference between the proportions testing positive for patient-facing healthcare or resident-facing social care roles and people not working in these roles.’

ONS surveys carried out in the fortnight before May 4, based on nearly 15,000 swab tests taken in England, showed 1.33 per cent of NHS and care home workers were infected compared with just 0.22 per cent of others.

The previous survey showed that 148,000 were infected in England at any one time, but the ONS said ‘the change is relatively small and it should be interpreted that the number of people in England that have Covid-19 is relatively stable’.

The study found there were an estimated 61,000 new infections per week in England over the past four weeks, excluding those working in hospitals or care homes.

This is higher than the daily Government figures, but the ONS said estimating infection levels is hugely complicated and its 137,000 snapshot figure could in reality be as high as 208,000 or as low as 85,000.