More than 70 per cent of people in England have had covid, new figures have revealed. An estimated 38.5 million people have had the virus during the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics said.
It's the first time an attempt has been made to calculate the cumulative number of people who have had Covid-19 over much of the pandemic. But the real toll will be higher as the stats only cover the period between April 27, 2020, and February 11, 2022.
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The estimate is based on results from more than 500,000 adults and children across the UK over the last two years, who were randomly chosen and regularly PCR tested. But it doesn't include the first surge of the virus in March and early April 202, and the last two months when cases have also rocketed.
Figures for the rest of the home countries have also been released, but are difficult to compare with England's because they cover differing and shorter time periods. In Wales an estimated 1.7 million people had covid between June 30, 2020 and February 11, 2022, that's around 56 per cent of the population.
An estimated 1.3m people in Northern Ireland had the virus between July 27, 2020 and February 11, 2022, around 72 per cent of the population, and in Scotland an estimated 2.7m people, or just over one in two, had coronavirus September 22, 2020 and February 11, 2022. All figures are for people in private households and do not include those in hospitals, care homes and other communal establishments.
