Nearly 10,000 people tested positive in one week.
There was a sharp rise in English coronavirus cases in the week before most children returned to school, new data has revealed.
Nearly 10,000 people tested positive from the 27th August to the 2nd of September, a 43% increase on the week before and the biggest jump of the summer.
Proven coronavirus cases fell steadily from their highpoint in March to a lowpoint in early July before increasing steadily throughout July and August.
The number of tests done also increased throughout most of this period but, in the last week of August, the number of tests done fell week-on-week for the first time since June.
Data for the following week and the current week is not yet available but, as the government has instituted stricter lockdown measures, the number of cases is unlikely to have fallen.
Throughout the summer, the government has been encouraging the public to get back to normal. They have subsidised eating out with the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, posed drinking beer in pubs and encouraged employees to go back to their offices.
Joe Lo is a co-editor of Left Foot Forward
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