Image copyright pyrite
Getty Images
The government’s scientific advisers say the epidemic has spread across the country, with the number of Rs rising between 1.1 and 1.4.
Officials in England are warning of “a lot of bad things” to come, with more than 1,000,000 cases a day.
And the scientist behind the Kovid symptom study application said it appears to be “the beginning of another wave.”
The development comes as England’s new sanctions are being discussed.
At least 13.5 million people, about one-fifth of the UK’s population, are facing some form of domestic sanctions.
The number of cases of Kovid-19 virus and hospital admissions doubles every seven to eight days in the UK.
Although mortality remains very low, the scientific institute Sage, advising the UK government on the epidemic, says the increase in R numbers “shows that we are moving towards a wider spread of transmission at a faster rate”.
‘Worrying picture’
The UK’s new daily lab-confirmed cases have risen sharply in the past two weeks, and ongoing problems with the government’s testing and trace program have led to people struggling to access these tests.
“There are clear indications that the virus is now spreading widely among all age groups,” said Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, adding that “there has been an increase in hospital admissions rates and intensive care in the elderly in particular”.
The Covid Symptom Study app, which monitors the health of four million people in the UK, estimates that there are approximately 50,000 new cases of covid every day in the last two weeks.
His latest figures show an increase in cases in London for the first time since June.
Professor Tim Speck, professor of genetic epidemiology and application founder at King’s College London, said it was a “worrying picture” and added that it was “the beginning of another wave”.
The ONS Infection Survey, which examines whether thousands of people in random homes have symptoms, estimated that there were about 6,000 new infections a day from the week of September 10.
It found that the infection rate was highest in the North West and London and that children aged two to 11 and children aged 17 to 34 had very positive tests.
Wells’ ONS data suggest that the Covid-19 case is currently “relatively stable” – with one in about 2,000 people testing positive.
But the ONS said Wales’ results should be carefully explained because of the small number of tests in the sample.
