England lockdown cuts Covid levels by two thirds

Imperial College London study finds strong decline in coronavirus cases

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a vial of an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, during his visit to a vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in south Wales. Reuters

Boris Johnson disinfects a chair in the public waiting area of the vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium. AFP

A general view of a vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium. Reuters

Boris Johnson speaks to members of the public as they wait to receive an Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine. AFP

Boris Johnson meets police officers who deal with Covid rule enforcement, during a visit to South Wales Police headquarters in Bridgend, Wales. AP Photo

Prince Charles talks to Chief Pharmacist Inderjit Singh on a visit to The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Getty Images

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall speak to staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. AFP

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock takes a selfie with staff at the vaccination centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. AFP

A woman accompanied by a boy and girl stand and gesture out of a window from inside the Radisson Blu hotel at Heathrow Airport, where they are undertaking mandatory quarantine. AFP

A man looks out of a window from inside the Radisson Blu hotel at Heathrow Airport. AFP

A traveller arrives by coach and is escorted by staff into the Holiday Inn hotel near Heathrow Airport. AFP

A woman wearing a face covering decorates a shop window in London. AP Photo

A man swabs the back of his throat at a mobile testing site at the Bramley Inn in the village of Bramley, west of London. AFP

Coronavirus infections across England are in strong decline due to lockdown, a major study found on Thursday.

Imperial College London’s React study found that Covid-19 infections across the country had dropped by more than two-thirds since the third lockdown began, with an 80 per cent fall in London.

The study - which involved the testing of 85,000 volunteers - found that 1 in 200 people were carrying the virus between February 4 and February 13. In January, scientists reported that 1 in 63 people were infected.

The study comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a staged exit from lockdown, stressing that measures would be eased “cautiously and prudently”.

Schools are expected to be first to reopen on March 8 alongside a mass testing regime.

Ministers are drawing up plans for the parents of secondary school pupils to administer lateral flow tests on their children twice a week to allow them to return to the classroom, The Telegraph reported.

It is understood ministers are looking at proposals to reopen non-essential shops in mid-April, with hospitality to open later that month.

Prof Paul Elliott, director of the React study, cautioned that coronavirus levels were still high despite the declining case numbers.

"Clearly no one wants to be in lockdown any longer than they need to be, but just a note of warning: the prevalence rates are still very high," he told BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.

“They are as high as they were back in September last year when they were on the increase. The number of people in hosp currently are at the level they were in the first wave. We really have to be cautious.”

The study found that the highest levels of infection were among young people, particularly the 5 to 12 and 18 to 24 age groups, who have a lower risk of succumbing to serious illness or death from Covid-19.

Prof Elliott said it was still too early to tell whether the vaccination programme was having an effect on case rates.

“At the moment we’re seeing the effects of lockdown,” he said.

Care Minister Helen Whately said the government was yet to decide on any firm dates for the end of lockdown.

Mr Johnson will announce England’s lockdown exit strategy on February 22.

“The reason why we’ve put off saying what the road map will be until next week is to make sure we had time to look at the data,” she told Sky News on Thursday.

“We’re going to come out of the lockdown step by step because we still have over 20,000 people in hospital with Covid.”

Scientists have urged the government to decide on an “acceptable” number of infections, suggesting that Covid will be a permanent respiratory illness alongside the flu.

Prof Dame Angela McLean, chief scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence, said experts wanted to know when the crisis would be considered over.

“It’s one of the things we’ve cried out for again and again – could somebody in a position of political power tell us what is an acceptable number of infections?” she told the science and technology committee.