The latest #infectionsurvey from @ONS shows signs of an increase in England, from 0.07% to 0.09% (or 1 in 1,110), though the CI is from 0.07% to 0.11%, so it's too early to be sure.
Wales stays the lowest at 0.02% for the second week - that's 1 in 4,340.
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N Ireland falls from 0.07% to 0.06% (1 in 1,550), and this week Scotland shows the biggest fall, from 0.08% to 0.05% (1 in 1,960).
Note in the chart how wide the CI's are for all but England, so any one week needs to be considered with those in mind.
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Possibly surprisingly, given the focus on B.1.617.2 and the NW, that's not the area that is showing signs of increase. Instead ONS notes Yorks/Humber, the North East and South East as the areas where it judges prevalence to be increasing.
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By age, the overall increase appears to be driven by primary school children, age 35 to 49, and, disappointingly given vaccine coverage, the over 70s, although this latter group remains at relatively low levels.
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Regarding variants, ONS notes that it saw an increase in the prop'n compatible with B.1.1.7 in England, but the trend is uncertain. Given B.1.617.2 is not compatible with the Kent variant, that's also possibly a surprise, given other data showing a large increase in 617.2.
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However, there were only 111 positive cases in the last 2w in England, so a much smaller sample than the 9,000 new cases sequenced and reported yesterday. So it would appear that this aspect of the survey is unlikely to add to our knowledge of the current trend in variants.
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Survey here:
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…
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