The circulation of the new coronavirus is accelerating in the United Kingdom, contaminations doubling every nine days in England despite local restrictions imposed by the government, which is resisting calls for general containment, according to a study published on Thursday.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
As part of this study from Imperial College London and Ipsos-Mori, more than 85,000 volunteers were tested in England between October 16 and 25. During that time, 128 out of 10,000 people were infected in England, a figure that doubles every nine days.
The results indicate that contaminations continue to rise in all parts of England, including those with so far low circulation, and in all age groups, with the largest increase occurring among people aged 55 to 64 years old. The North West and Yorkshire and Humber concentrate the greatest number of contaminations.
The virus’s reproduction rate (“R”) has reached 1.6 nationwide, the study also says.
“These interim results paint a worrying picture of the situation in England, where we are seeing an increase in the prevalence of infections nationwide, which we know will lead to more hospitalizations and deaths,” said the Professor Paul Elliott, program director at Imperial College.
In the United Kingdom, the country in Europe most bereaved by the pandemic with more than 45,000 dead, the daily death toll exceeded 300 two days in a row on Tuesday and Wednesday, levels that had not been observed since the month of May.
Each province in the country decides on its strategy for combating the spread of the virus. In Wales, since Friday evening and until November 9, the more than three million inhabitants must stay at home.
In England, restrictions have been tightened for millions of Britons in the areas most affected by the spread of the virus, especially in the north, where local elected officials are urging the government to sketch out deconfinement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far sought to avoid a general containment of the population.
A three-level alert system determining the restrictions to be deployed according to the prevalence of the new coronavirus has been set up in England.
On Friday, Nottinghamshire, a region in central England where contamination rates are among the highest in the country, will be raised to the highest alert level, of three, of restrictions.
“The problem at the moment is that even if the measures adopted in the Level 2 and Level 3 areas slow the spread in the coming weeks, they are unlikely to cause a rapid drop in daily cases and deaths,” Professor Neil Ferguson, a scientist advising the government, told the PA News Agency.
The opposition Labor Party is calling for general containment for two to three weeks to curb the spread of the virus.