PHE report 0.17% positivity overall for 1-7 March.
For secondary schools in T&T it was 0.05%, for primary schools was 0.08%.
Both consistently falling over the previous four weeks (was 0.07% and 0.12% the week before).
Void rates are 0.16% for both setting and no clear trend.
Over a million LFDs a day have been done since 8th March, so lots more data to come and will be v interesting to follow positivity and also whether such high rates of school uptake continue.
Overall case numbers fell by 34%, with 44.5k handled by T&T and 89% reached.
Similar proportion of cases provided details of contacts as previous weeks.
But more contacts identified per case than previous weeks - up to 2.5, the highest since mid Nov last year.
Dip in the percentage of these contacts reached this week, to 91% and the lowest since the system for reaching household contacts was change in early Dec.
This is because of the first significant drop in weeks in the percentage of contacts that are from the same household.
The percentage of HH contacts reached is the same at 97%, but for non-HH it's 69%.
The percentage of close contacts that are from the same HH has been edging down for a few weeks but this is a big drop - the week before schools fully reopened. Alongside more contacts per case.
It suggests more mixing going on.
Slightly mixed pic on time taken to reach cases and contacts. End to end journey time similar to last week, but smaller percentage of contacts reached within 3 days of case taking test.
For time to PCR test result, not dissimilar to previous weeks.
Case numbers and percentage testing positive (positivity) still falling across community testing (pillar 2) and health care worker/those in clinical need tests (pillar 1).
The steep drop in P2 positivity is due to the massive jump in LFD use (lateral flow devices for rapid testing among people without symptoms)
2.8m done between 1st-7th March, with a positivity of 0.17% compared with 1.7m done the week before. LFD use will rise further next wk.
The T&T budget is massive, and it's right that it has scrutiny. The vast majority (perhaps around 80%) has gone on testing and the achievements here are pretty significant.
Regularly >5% of population are tested for a disease that we didn't know existed around a yr ago. 2/
But by the same token relatively little has been spend on the contact tracing and isolation support.
We can't test our way out of the pandemic - it has to go hand in hand with tracing contacts and ensuring people have the support they need to isolate. 3/
And check out how rates in 80+y/o were tracking with those aged 20-60yrs
but over the last few weeks the rate of decline has accelerated to track more closely with those aged 60-80yrs.
After positivity went a bit wild last week (half term and therefore far fewer LFDs being done) reassuring it's back to similar trends to the week before.
Having said this, pillar 2 positivity is really hard to interpret now as includes LFDs and PCR.
Latest REACT-1 study now published suggesting prevalence of COVID in England of 0.5% between 4th-23rd Feb (round 9).
Two-thirds lower than the 1.6% reported over the same period in Jan (round 8).
But big variation by region, ethnicity, and deprivation. 1/4
Higher chance of infection among Asian ethnic groups, if more deprived, bigger households, and if health/care worker. 2/4
And whilst still declining everywhere, higher prevalence in NE, London, East Mids, with some signs that falls are stalling in London, West Mids, and SE.
Finally, lowest prevalence in 65+ but big drops across the board. 3/4