[Samm]

More on that new data which emerged at today's Downing Street briefing suggesting about one in six Londoners and one in 20 people elsewhere in England have had coronavirus.

How did those figures come about?

Public Health England says it is carrying out a range of seroprevalence studies - where they measure antibodies in the blood of healthy people - to better understand past rates of infection across the population.

In this case, they took 1,000 samples between mid-April and early May from each region.

From this, they say they could make a crude estimate that between 4.5% and 13% of the population have coronavirus antibodies.

With further statistical adjustments, they found about 17% of London adults had been infected; this compares to only 4.3% in the north-east of England.

As antibodies can take up to four weeks to develop, it is likely that the level outside London will increase as more samples are tested in the coming weeks.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, said: “Early surveillance suggests that rates of infection were higher in London than the rest of the country – which is consistent with data collected through our other systems.

"London was affected earlier and our data suggests that more of the London population became infected before the lockdown took effect."

BBC Source

Obviously not accurate at the moment, I just find it really MAD how quickly and contagious this virus was/is. I’m perched for more figures after more research has taken place.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Samm

BBC Source

Obviously not accurate at the moment, I just find it really MAD how quickly and contagious this virus was/is. I’m perched for more figures after more research has taken place.

If the figures are correct then we can (rougly) estimate that between 5 million and 6 million people have had Covid-19, which puts the death rate at around 0.6 - 0.7% which is pretty consistent with estimatres from other countries.

[Oliver_W]

To be fair London is basically a battery farm so of course you're more likely to catch it there.

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

If the figures are correct then we can (rougly) estimate that between 5 million and 6 million people have had Covid-19, which puts the death rate at around 0.6 - 0.7% which is pretty consistent with estimatres from other countries.

the death rate was always going to be similar across developed nations provided their health system remained operational. That's one of the reasons why the number of deaths per country is such a ludicrously stupid metric

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

the death rate was always going to be similar across developed nations provided their health system remained operational. That's one of the reasons why the number of deaths per country is such a ludicrously stupid metric

It's still helpful though - being able to compare UK-USA-Canada-France-Germany-Scandanavians-etc to elsewhere can show how effective healthcare actually is in tackling the virus

[MTVN]

I had hoped it was more tbh

[caprimint]

I think I've had it

[DouglasS]

1 in 20 elsewhere is worrying because that means it could easily peak again everywhere else bar London.

[Kizzy]

I don't think enough time has passed to get an accurate stratified sample. Let's wait till these antibody test results start coming in to assess the general population.

[LeatherTrumpet]

the corona hype continues