According to the countries largest testing study, coronavirus cases and infections continued to fall even after some lockdown measures were lifted.
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The research was carried out by Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI recently.
It involved 150,000 people across England being tested for Coronavirus between the 19th of June and 8th if July in an attempt to try and find out how widespread the virus was and how fast it was spreading.
A report published in May suggested that the infection rate throughout the country was halving every 8 or 9 days, whilst the second report, which was based on days in late June, showed that there were around a mere 8 positive cases per 10,000 people, despite people being able to go in non-essential shops and meet people outside their households. And just to add, in the report taken in May, there was a massive difference between the infection rates, and cases found in key workers compared to the general public, but after looking at the data further, it seems that strange contrast wasn’t there in late June.
The health secretary said this was due to the countries commitment to stopping the spread, and showed that the measures in place were working to stop the spread, even in the harder hit places in the community.
He said: “This research highlights how, thanks to everyone’s efforts and sacrifice, alongside targeted measures to counter the spread of this virus in health and care settings, we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted.
“However, we must not be complacent. I urge everyone to get a test if you have symptoms, self-isolate and provide your contacts to NHS Test and Trace so we can continue to keep the virus at bay and get back to normal.”
Also involved in the findings were race and age figures, of which age showed no real difference when it came to being infected. However people who were Black and Asian, and people who were in other ethnic minority groups, were still found to be more likely to test positive for coronavirus compared to someone who was white.
There are more such studies being carried out – one in particular which is interesting is seeing if the use of antibiotics has increased over lockdown, despite these drugs being ineffective against viruses.
