UK infections at lowest level since autumn, figures suggest
COVID-19 INFECTIONS across all parts of the UK have fallen to the lowest level since the autumn despite soaring rates worldwide, new figures suggest.
According to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), around one in 480 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to April 10 – down from one in 340 the previous week. This is the lowest figure since the week to September 19, 2020, when the estimate stood at one in 500.
Meanwhile, the ONS said that the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have decreased in Yorkshire and the Humber and also in south-east England, while the trend was uncertain for all other regions. The drop in infection levels across the UK marks a contrast to rising case rates in other parts of the world.
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said coronavirus cases globally were rising at “worrying” rates and highlighted that the number of new cases confirmed per week had nearly doubled during the past two months.
Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr Tedros said the number of new cases “is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far in the pandemic”.
It comes as Downing Street insisted that the Government’s red list of travel ban countries is “under constant review”, when asked why India did not feature on it.
India has seen soaring Covid-19 rates, with more than 13.9 million confirmed cases and 172,000 deaths recorded.
Downing Street said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s planned visit to India was still due to go ahead later this month, despite concerns over the discovery of UK cases of a coronavirus variant first detected in the South Asian nation.
Public Health England (PHE) said some 77 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been confirmed in the UK. Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East
Anglia, said it included two “escape mutations” which “are causing people to be concerned”, but added it was not known for certain what this meant for the effect of a vaccine.
PHE has so far designated it as “variant under investigation” rather than a “variant of concern” and said there is currently no evidence to suggest it causes more severe disease or that currently available vaccines are less likely to work against it.
According to the latest Government figures, the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England is between 0.7 and 1. Last week, the figure was between 0.8 and 1. R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.
When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.
The Government said a further 34 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of yesterday, bringing the UK total to 127,225.
It is approaching the highest rate of infection so far. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the WHO describes the global situation.