What is happening in England?

What is happening in England?

"No one is really sure what's going on," said John Edmunds, an epidemiologist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

It is very much unclear whether these numbers reflect the end of the third wave peak or the mere actual infection slowdown caused by complex social factors. The spread of a more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus in the UK seemed, despite a successful vaccination program, to be an impending major crisis. The exponential growth in the number of infected since June has led to the prediction that more than 100,000 new cases will be recorded daily, and there have been fears of excessive pressure on the British health system in terms of the number of hospitalized patients. In such a climate, many scholars felt that the government's complete mitigation of measures was reckless. Edmunds said that these data, however, do not mean that collective immunity has developed in Britain.

"The decline in the number of cases is somewhat unprecedented, in the sense that this trend is applicable across the country because such situations were recorded only after lockdown. However, collective immunity would manifest in different places at different times," he added.

Despite the fact that about 70% of the adult population in the UK is completely vaccinated a large number of vulnerable groups of citizens is a major concern. The highest proportion of infections occurs among people aged 16 to 24, and most of them are either not immunized or have not received both doses. Edmunds gave possible reasons for the drop in new cases. First, the decline could seem more pronounced due to the sharp rise in infections in England in mid-July, which was caused by the European Football Championship, which caused many people to gather in pubs, bars, homes, and stadiums. That, as said by Edmunds, is in line with the current higher rate of infection among adult men. Another major reason for the decline in the number of cases could be the end of the school year. Many schools in England closed around 23 July. However, it is too early to present this in the official data.