Covid infections appear to be flatlining at worryingly high levels in England, experts have said. Although rates are falling among adults, the prevalence of the virus in children is growing, according to the latest data from the UK’s React survey, run by Imperial College London.
Two-thirds of recent cases were also among those who said they had previously caught Covid, although scientists cautioned that it was hard to determine whether these were true reinfections, or a result of people still testing positive from lingering infections.
The study, which assessed 100,607 swabs between 5 and 20 January, suggests that infections peaked around the beginning of the month, when one in 23 people had the virus, before declining and then flattening off.
“We’ve seen in January a decline overall, with an R number below one,” said Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React survey. “So it got to a very high level and then has declined. But there is some indication that that decline is now plateauing.”
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