UK Data Show Significant Decline in CCP Virus Infections

A commuter wears a facemask as he sits in a bus shelter with NHS signage promoting "Stay Home, Save Lives" in Chinatown, central London, on Jan. 8, 2021. Tolga Akmen /AFP via Getty Images

CCP virus infections in England have fallen significantly since January, according to a study data published on Thursday.

Imperial College London’s latest REACT-1 study report found that CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus infections fell by more than two-thirds from the last report in January.

Swab results recorded between Feb. 4 and 13 from volunteers showed that 51 people per 10,000 were infected, just a third of the prevalence during the last round of tests conducted in January, when 157 per 10,000 people were infected, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

The most marked drop was witnessed in London, where positive tests fell from 2.83 percent to 0.54 percent from last month.

“These findings show encouraging signs infections are now heading in the right direction across the country, but we must not drop our guard,” Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement.

He said infection rates and hospital admissions remain high, with over 20,000 COVID-19 patients still in hospital.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the study at Imperial College, said the “encouraging” results show that “lockdown measures are effectively bringing infections down.”

“It’s reassuring that the reduction in numbers of infections occurred in all ages and in most regions across the country,” he said.

“While the trends we’ve observed are good news, we need to all work to keep infections down by sticking to the measures which are designed to protect us and our health system.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is due to reveal his plan for exiting lockdown on Feb. 22, has come under pressure from lawmakers and businesses to set clear dates for the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions following the biggest vaccine rollout in British history.

Nearly 16 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, official figures show.

The COVID Recovery Group (CRG), a group of Tory MPs who are sceptical about lockdown measures, said that they welcomed “the tremendous pace of the vaccination rollout” and that the restrictions will no longer be justified once the high-risk groups have been protected by vaccines.

In a letter to the prime minister on Feb. 13, they demanded that schools must be reopened to all pupils on March 8 and all COVID-19 restrictions must be lifted by the end of April.

But Johnson has refused to set firm dates for easing COVID-19 lockdown measures, arguing instead that a “cautious but irreversible” plan would be preferable.