1 in 50 People in England Has COVID, According to Official Estimates

Two percent of England’s population – more than 1 million people – has the coronavirus, official estimates have revealed.

The grim figures were released on Tuesday alongside a briefing by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as England and Scotland began new “stay at home” lockdowns due to the rampant spread of the virus.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in the period between the 27th of December and the 2nd of January, 1 in 50 people in England had COVID-19, compared to 1 in 900 in mid-September.

It was also announced Tuesday that the new daily confirmed cases in the UK had exceeded 60,000 (60,916) for the first time since the start of the pandemic. A further 830 people have died, the figures showed, taking the UK death toll to 76,305.

At a televised briefing on Tuesday, Johnson said that around 1.3 million people in the UK had been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

On Sunday, he told the BBC he had “no doubt” it was safe for children to return to school on Monday after the Christmas holidays.

But last night, Johnson announced that England - health policy is devolved among the UK nations – would be going back into a strict lockdown due to the spread of the COVID variant first identified in Kent, with primary and secondary schools expected to be closed for at least the next six weeks.