Coronavirus heat map shows how bad outbreak is in YOUR area – as 23,000 Brits currently have Covid
THIS heat map shows how bad the coronavirus outbreak is in your area.
New data from an app which tracks people with Covid symptoms in the UK suggests more than 23,000 Brits are currently infected with the bug.
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The map highlights big regional differences across the UK with the Midlands remaining the current epicentre.
Figures from the app show the Midlands has 6,556 predicted symptomatic Covid cases compared to 2,254 in the North West.
Northern Ireland have almost no active cases, while parts of Wales are seeing a high number of symptomatic cases, the study shows.
Cases stop falling
Scientists at King's College London, who are behind the study, also warn that in the last week, cases have stopped declining.
Their data shows there are currently 1,472 daily new cases of Covid - up slightly on last week when there were 1,445 new infections.
Prof Tim Spector, an epidemiologist King's College London who is leading the study, said: “It is disappointing to see that the number of daily new cases are no longer falling like they have been in previous weeks, this could be a temporary blip or due to the easing of lockdown and the amount of social contact slowly increasing.
"Importantly our updated analysis of the prevalence is still continuing to show that the Midlands and Wales are key areas in the country where the amount of Covid is remaining relatively high.
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"It is important that we keep a close eye on these areas.
"With the growing number of people suffering for extended periods of time, we are going to be focusing on these long term sufferers to help us research causes and potential treatments.
"But in order for this to be possible, we need all our users to continue to log in, even if they have been ill and have got better.”
The latest figures were based on the data from almost 3 millions users, 11,639 swab tests done between June 21 to July 4.
This estimate is in line with the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics in which 25,000 people in England were estimated to be infected with Covid-19 during the two week period from June 14 to June 27.
It comes as the coronavirus death toll in the UK has risen to 44,517 after 126 more deaths were recorded yesterday.
There have now been a total of 286,979 cases of coronavirus recorded in Britain, as of July 8.
Meanwhile, taxi drivers and people arriving at airports as well as NHS staff could be subject to mass coronavirus testing in efforts to identify asymptomatic people and their contacts, Jeremy Hunt has suggested.
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The former health secretary, now chairman of the health and social care committee, said certain groups within the population, as well as people in particular parts of the country, could be tested to try to better track Covid-19 infections.
Speaking during an online conversation with Royal Society of Medicine president Professor Sir Simon Wessely on Wednesday, he said: "I think looking at healthcare staff, looking at taxi drivers is another group, airport arrivals is another group.
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"I think we need to think about mass testing amongst groups of the population as well as parts of the country like Leicester and so on, as our best way of finding out where the asymptomatics are and feeding them into the system so that their contacts can be isolated."
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