- Title: UK's rapid COVID case drop could be explained by Euro 2020
- Date: 27th July 2021
- Summary: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 27, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) EPIDEMIOLOGIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, PROFESSOR ROWLAND KAO, SAYING: "It's a very complex situation so you've got multiple factors occurring at the same time, as we've already discussed, the fact that vaccinations will have an impact and they're going to push things in one direction and the release of restrictions on the other side. But behaviour of course has that impact."
- Embargoed: 10th August 2021 15:58
- Keywords: COVID Euro 2020 cases peaks testing
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, AND EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, AND EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Europe,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA006ENMA2BR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The UK's continuing drop in case numbers could be explained in part by gatherings around the Euro 2020 soccer championships, an epidemiologist said.
Britain on Tuesday (July 27) recorded 23,511 COVID-19 cases, the seventh consecutive day with a lower total than the previous day, but 131 deaths were registered within 28 days of a positive test, the highest figure since March, according to official data.
The closure of schools for summer, the end of the Euros and warmer weather are among factors epidemiologists say might have reduced social mixing indoors and therefore cases, even as England's economy has fully reopened.
Case numbers have been falling for longer in Scotland, where the recent peak in cases was on July 1, than in England, corresponding to an earlier elimination from the Euros, Rowland Kao, epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Kao added that changes in testing patterns might mean that the sharpness of the drop is overstated in daily testing figures.
Johnson has lifted restrictions in England and is betting he can get one of Europe's largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated, a decision which marks a new chapter in the response to the novel coronavirus.
(Production: Natalie Thomas) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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