Recently, there has been an update regarding the Covid 19 and it said that about one out of 10 people across the UK was tested positive for Covid 19 antibodies in the month of December and as per the data, it has been roughly double the figure. The estimates from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that between 8 percent of people in Northern Ireland and that of 12 percent of people in England. This showed signs of the post Covid 19 infections.
Antibody positivity has ranged from 2 percent to 7 percent around the UK in the month of October. 6,586 Covid deaths were registered in the UK in the week to that of 8th of January. This has further brought it so close to that of 96,000. However, approximately a quarter of deaths of people who were living in the care homes include a disproportionate impact on a group of people, which further accounts for less than 1 percent of the population.
The care home residents accounted for 40 percent of deaths back in the month of July. The ONS regularly does a test wherein a representative sample of the population is taken for both the current infection as well as to determine the antibodies which indicates a past infection. People who have been taking part in the survey are tested for their symptoms. This is further utilized to estimate how common both the virus and the antibodies are in the population as a whole.
These antibodies are basically proteins in the blood which have been fighting off specific infections. They were developed if somebody catches an infection and their body has been fighting it off, or if they have been vaccinated. Humber and Yorkshire topped the chart with around 17 percent of the people having positive antibodies, who have been followed by London.
A virologist at Warwick Medical School, Prof Lawrence Young has said, “This study shows that infection with the Sars-Cov-2 virus is much more widespread in the UK than previously realized, with around 1 in 10 people estimated to have been infected by December 2020. The implications are that infection rates increased significantly between November and December.”
In December:
- One in eight (12%) people in England had antibodies, up from 7%
- One in 10 (10%) people in Wales had antibodies, up from 4%
- One in 11 (9%) people in Scotland had antibodies, up from 7%
- One in 13 (8%) people in Northern Ireland had antibodies, up from 2%
