ENGLAND’S Covid outbreak is slowly shrinking with around 1,700 people catching the virus each day.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today published its lowest estimates yet and said just 14,000 people are currently sick with the virus.
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So far in the UK over 44,000 people have died from the virus and the new data suggests we have finally managed to get hold of case rates.
Data published by the ONS last week revealed that there were 3,500 new cases every day.
Information published today states that this has now more than halved and sits at 1,700.
Data from the ONS is based on nose and throat swabs and shows that case levels have now eased.
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In order to collate the data experts tested 26,000 people this week – with just eight testing positive for the virus.
Today’s report stated: “When analysing data for the most recent non-overlapping 14-day periods, these estimates suggest the percentage testing positive has decreased over time since April 27, and this downward trend appears to have now levelled off.
“Over the last three 14-day periods, the variation in the percentage testing positive is consistent with random variation based on sampling.”
The data uses information from community samples.
The ONS says this means hospitals and care homes are not taken into account and these samples are from private households.
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Experts have previously warned that they would expect to see Covid cases rise again if people do not continue to follow social distancing rules.
Professor Chris Whitty said previously said that case loads had gone down due to the efforts of the population.
This includes social distancing measures, the use of face masks and working from home where possible.
Earlier this month however he did state that cases will rise again if social distancing measures were not followed.
Regional data from the ONS report today also suggests that more people are currently testing positive in the East of England and in London.
Despite this the ONS is keen to highlight that regional estimate are not always reliable due to the fact that some areas are so vast.
The report gathered data from June 22 to July 5.
On July 4 pubs, restaurants and hair dressers were allowed to reopen and the data includes tests from one day of eased restrictions.
Data released next week will have a better indication of whether or not relaxed lockdown measures have resulted in an increase in cases.
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