COVID-19 infections in England jump 60% in a week

LONDON: The number of COVID-19 infections in England jumped by 60% in the week from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5 according to official estimates, as the number of official cases rises across the UK and days before a ban on social gatherings comes into effect.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics said that it estimated there were around 3,200 new cases per day in the community population of England during the week, a rise of 60% on the 2,000 per day estimate it gave the previous week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has banned groups of more than six people from meeting from Monday as the government tries to keep the spread of the virus under control.

The ONS’s 3,200 new daily cases estimate is slightly higher than the current official numbers of new cases being reported across the whole of the UK. On Thursday, there were 2,919 new daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK, and 2,659 confirmed new cases on Wednesday.

UK cases are tracking much higher than the levels of around 1,000 per day recorded in August.

Providing its latest modelling on Friday, the ONS said it estimated that 39,700 people within England had COVID-19 during the week from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, equating to around 1 in 1,400 people, 47% higher than the estimate of 27,100 they gave for the week earlier.