Coronavirus: Data shows cases in England falling

9 July 2020

Two reports charting coronavirus cases in England show the number of people in the community with the disease is falling.

The Office for National Statistics estimates one in 3,900 people have Covid - 0.03% of the population, down from one in 2,200 the previous week.

And data from Public Health England shows confirmed cases fell by 25% in the week to 5 July.

In Leicester, they fell to 120 per 100,000 from 140 per 100,000 last week.

The latest data shows the top 10 local authorities in the UK, after Leicester, all saw fewer than 30 cases per 100k people.

Out of 150 authorities, about three-quarters had falling or static case numbers - with relatively small increases in the other quarter.

The ONS estimate is based on swab tests collected from 25,662 participants, of which eight people tested positive for Covid-19.

If you scaled that up, it would work out as about 14,000 infections in England.

But because it's based on such a small number of cases, the ONS gave a range of between 5,000 and 31,000.

Either way, the ONS said the figures suggest the "incidence of new infections appears to have decreased since mid-May and has now levelled off".

The highest number of cases were among older people, particularly the over-85s.

And three-quarters of positive tests took place outside hospitals - including in care homes.

What do I need to know about the coronavirus?