INFECTION RATE IN UK LOWEST SINCE END OF SEPTEMBER- ONS

Fri 16 April 2021:

The number of Covid-19 infections in England fell by a third in the week ending April 10 to levels not seen since September last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Friday.

The latest level equates to one in 480 people. It is the lowest figure since the week to September 19, 2020, when the estimate stood at one in 500.

UK Health Minister Matt Hancock also hailed the ONS data, claiming that it shows that the government’s strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic is working.

“I’m hugely grateful to the British public for sticking by the rules to suppress COVID-19 as we roll-out the vaccine. Through our mammoth national effort, we’re protecting our country from this virus,” Hancock tweeted.

The numbers, recorded before pubs and restaurants opened for outdoor service.

According to the latest data released by the government body, in England alone, an estimated 112,600 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the week ending April 10, equating to around one in 480 people.

In the other three nations that make up the UK the levels of infections also dropped during the same week, with Wales showing one in 920 people infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, while in Scotland and Northern Ireland the rates were one in 500 people and one in 710 people, respectively.

“It is encouraging that across the UK we have seen a decrease in the percentage of people testing positive in the latest time period, with rates now similar to what we saw in early September last year,” an ONS spokesperson said.

The latest ONS data comes amidst concern that the presence of several virus variants of concern, including the ones first detected in India and South Africa, in at least three areas of London, alongside the easing of the coronavirus lockdown would lead to another spike in the number of cases and deaths.

Almost 4.4 million people have tested positive to COVID-19 in the UK, where 127,121 have died of the disease since the pandemic struck last year.