COVID-19: ‘Pingdemic’ blamed on ‘sharp’ increase in cases as estimated infections in England peak in six months | UK News

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The so-called ‘pingemia’ is the result of a ‘sharp’ increase in COVID cases, a senior health official said – as the estimated number of people with the virus in England peaked in six months .

The latest figures show that one in 75 people in England is likely to have had COVID-19 last week – the highest number since the end of January.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that in England the estimated number of positive tests for the virus in the community was 741,700 in the week to July 17.

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That works out to about one in 75 people, down from one in 95 the week before, and it’s the highest number since the week of January 30.

Dr Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, said an increase in coronavirus cases was behind the ‘pingemia’ which saw 618,903 people being asked to self-isolate by the app NHS in the week leading up to July 14.

Dr Harries said: “What we are seeing now is a very, very big increase in cases, so the ‘pingemia’ is because we have a pandemic.

Image: Dr Jenny Harries said the UK was seeing a ‘very, very strong increase in cases’

“This is the first time really that we are on an upward curve, an upward trajectory, so it’s inevitable that a lot of people will be asked to isolate themselves.”

Dr Harries added that it is essential that people always follow directions and self-isolate if they are “pinged” by the app – separate from Test and Trace – to help stop transmission.

She said: “The bottom line about this is that self-isolation is a very important element. We know that you are five times more likely to become a case yourself if you have been in close contact and c ‘this is how we can stop transmission in progress. “

The government has faced calls to bring forward the date by which people doubly vaccinated against the coronavirus can avoid self-isolation in the face of ‘pingemia’.

Emergency measures were launched to protect food supplies, with around 10,000 essential sector workers saying they would not need to quarantine if alerted by the NHS app.

A small number of those appointed in other industries such as transportation may also not self-isolate if they have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

However, companies are frustrated with not covering employees in supermarkets or other sectors of the economy, due to staff shortages.

Ministers are under pressure to advance the relaxation of quarantine rules for fully vaccinated people, currently scheduled for August 16.

There are signs that the third wave is starting to slow down. Today the UK has recorded 36,389 cases – the third consecutive daily decline and 15,000 fewer cases than last Friday.

However, Dr Harries said it was too early to say if cases are stabilizing and that we may see a ‘spike’ again as the effects of so-called ‘Freedom Day’ wears off. feel.

She said: “The problem we have right now is that we have had differential activity across the country.

“So the North West is a hot spot, the North East has been very active recently – although it may level off – the South East is growing, so we have to watch the whole country.

“We have to be careful because of July 19. His cases will start to happen now that people are increasing their socialization, we may well see a further rise in the next few weeks.”

Meanwhile, separate government data showed the country’s coronavirus reproduction or R number remained stable from last week at between 1.2 and 1.4.

The R-value represents the average number of people that each COVID-positive person infects.

When the number is greater than 1, an epidemic can grow exponentially, but when it is less than 1, it means that the coronavirus epidemic is decreasing.

The current figure means that on average, every 10 people infected with the virus will infect between 12 and 14 more.

The growth rate of the virus in England shows that the number of new infections is increasing by 4% to 6% every day.

Last week, that figure was between 4% and 7%.

The R number and daily growth rate vary across the country, indicating where the virus is spreading fastest.

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