The government’s health security agency is calling on the public to remain vigilant against Covid by “taking time out” when they get the virus to reduce transmission as the wave of summer cases continues. The latest figures for the week to Sunday 30 June, suggest that the summer wave may have just peaked but that cases remain higher than they have been for all but one of the past 18 weeks. Hospitalisations were steady at 4.
1 per 100,000 of the population, while the proportion of people with symptoms who tested positive for Covid in laboratories fell by 6 per cent – from a ‘positivity rate’ of 12.3 per cent to one of 11.5 per cent, according to the data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) .
However, this was still considerably higher than the 10.0 per cent positivity rate recorded just ten days earlier, in the week to 20 June. And it is higher than it was at the peak of the May wave and at any point since mid February – with the exception of last week, when cases started to dip.
Scientists said that data based on positivity rates among people suspected of having Covid is much less accurate than testing a large cross section of the general public at random – but that they do give an indication of trends. While cases appear to be coming down, the UKHSA has urged people to be cautious against the virus. “In the past week, we have seen COVID-19 activity begin to stabilise across multiple indicators and we will continue to monitor rates closely,” said Dr .