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Suspected COVID-19 cases reported by GPs at the height of the pandemic were three times higher than officially confirmed infections, according to new research.
The study suggests that coronavirus it was more prevalent among the population than previously thought.
Many people who contracted COVID-19, including those with mild symptoms, will not have been tested, said lead author Dr. Sally Hull.
Others may not have been able to access the testing centers.
Between February 14 and April 30, GPs recorded 8,985 suspected cases, three times the number of people who tested positive at testing centers during the same period.
The research, conducted by Queen Mary University of London, found that people with dementia had seven times the risk of developing a suspected case of the disease.
Black, Asian, and Ethnic Minority (BAME) adults were twice as likely to have suspicious symptoms as white adults.
That increased risk was not necessarily due to factors such as other health conditions, obesity or social deprivation, the research found.
Unlike other studies, it found that women had a slightly higher risk of becoming infected with a suspected infection compared to men.
The greatest risks for men “arise later in the disease trajectory,” the research suggested.
Suspect cases were studied because test results were not sent to GPs during the study period.
The anonymized data was taken from the primary care records of approximately 1.2 million registered adults with 157 practices in four East London-led clinical groups during the peak of the outbreak.
Three of the four districts studied had death rates in the top five in London, while 55% of the population in those areas belonged to ethnic minorities.
Dr Hull said: “The high prevalence among BAME patients remains a major concern and we now know that ethnicity remains a risk factor even after accounting for social deprivation, long-term conditions, and index of body mass.
“So there is something else driving this that urgently requires more research.”
Factors such as household size, employment, travel, and availability of personal protective equipment could not be taken into account.
Dr Hull added: “It will be very important how GPs record and manage cases in their community as this can provide an early warning system if cases are increasing again in an area and if we are about to see a second wave of infection.. “
The study, which has been peer-reviewed, was published in the British Journal of General Practice.
