Coronavirus outbreaks in England spreading mostly in schools

Last week, the government introduced a 10pm curfew for pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues, as both the Prime Minister and Health Secretary defended the move to being a vital part in tackling the growth of Covid-19 cases.

But most recent data from Public Health England shows that educational settings were where cases mainly grew over the past few weeks.

The graph shows 782 acute respiratory infection (ARI) incidents broke out in the past week.

An ARI could be Covid-19, influenza or any other respiratory pathogen.

For Public Health England to declare an ‘outbreak’ in a sector, there must be at least two or more confirmed cases in a particular setting.

Almost 300 of these outbreaks were in educational settings in England, while 204 of the outbreaks were identified in workplaces.

The number of ARI outbreaks - not just Covid-19 (Credit: Public Health England)

Then 143 outbreaks were found in care homes this week, with 91 having at least one linked case that tested positive for Covid-19.

Food outlets / restaurants and ‘other’ settings played a small percentage in the number of outbreaks in England.

Number of specifically Covid-19 outbreaks (Credit: Public Health England)

A further breakdown of outbreaks in educational settings shows that secondary schools had the highest number of specifically Covid-19 confirmed clusters or outbreaks - and primary schools shortly after.

(Credit: Public Health England)

Despite the general national attention to outbreaks in several universities across the UK, colleges and universities played a small part in the number of outbreaks.

In England there were a total of 595 outbreaks in educational settings this week, with 252 of which coming from secondary schools, and 216 coming from primary schools.

These figures do not account for every infection, but only where an outbreak of two or more people are declared.