One In Fifty People In England Had Covid-19 Last Week, According To New Data

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) in England today published a new report that showed than between December 27th and January 2nd, an estimated 1 in 50 people in private households in England had Covid-19.

England, along with the other devolved nations in the U.K., Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, is in the midst of a rapid and startling rise in Covid-19 cases. The U.K. reported a record high 60,916 cases on Tuesday along with 830 deaths. Adjusted for population, the U.K. currently has a higher number of confirmed daily cases than the U.S., with only the Czech Republic reporting higher daily case numbers per capita.

The data from ONS is split up into different regions of England and in London, one of the worst affected areas of the country, there were a staggering estimated 1 in 30 people with Covid-19 in the week starting 27th December. In the North West, the number was 1 in 40.

The U.K. has been grappling with the spread of a new variant of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus, B.1.1.7, which recent studies have estimated to be significantly more transmissible than other variants of the virus.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that 1 million people currently had Covid-19 in the U.K. after yesterday announcing the country was raising its alert level to ‘5’ meaning health services are at risk of being overwhelmed. He also confirmed yesterday that England would go into a new, more restrictive lockdown with people only allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons, exercise or work which cannot be done from home. Schools are also shut for the majority of students with exceptions being made for the children of essential workers.

However, many of criticized the move for being far too late, as many hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS) are reporting a lack of intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients and in some cases, staffing shortages due to healthcare workers being off sick with Covid-19 and others reporting exhaustion and burnout. Other hospitals have had to cancel surgeries for other serious conditions like cancer.

The U.K. has currently approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and it’s own AstraZeneca vaccine developed in Oxford, with the U.S.’s Moderna vaccine currently under review. As the U.K, looks to widespread vaccination to help try and dig itself out of a gigantic hole, Johnson today reported that 1.3 million people had been vaccinated so far (at least with the first dose of vaccine).

However, even this is not without controversy as the U.K. has elected to delay administration of the second dose of vaccine for around three months, in order to give more people the first dose quicker. The move has split expert opinion, with Dr. Fauci from the National Institutes of Health advising sticking to the standard schedule of two doses, three to four weeks apart.