Covid-19: Positive tests in England at lowest level since June

The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in England has dropped to its lowest level since the end of June.

A total of 161,923 people tested positive at least once in the week to September 15, down 22% on the previous week, according to the latest Test and Trace figures.

This is the lowest number of people testing positive since the week to June 30.

Test and Trace figures peaked at 390,234 cases in the week to January 6, at the height of the second wave of coronavirus.

A more recent spike in cases saw the number hit 309,297 in the week to July 21.

But since then the weekly figure has been around or just below 200,000.

Some 12.0% of people – around one in eight – who were transferred to Test and Trace in the week to September 15 were not reached, meaning they were not able to provide details of recent close contacts.

This is down from 12.8% in the previous week.

Anybody in England who tests positive for Covid-19, either through a rapid (LFD) test or a PCR test processed in a laboratory, is transferred to Test and Trace so their contacts can be identified and alerted.

Out of 154,287 people transferred to Test and Trace in the most recent week, 18,462 were not reached.

The latest figures also show that 87.3% of people who were tested for Covid-19 in England in the week to September 15 at a regional site, local site or mobile testing unit – a so-called “in-person” test – received their result within 24 hours.

This is up from 81.0% in the previous week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson had pledged that by the end of June 2020, the results of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours.

He told the House of Commons on June 3 2020 he would get “all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that”.