ONS Survey: 75% of UK “Cases” Between April-June Were People Who Weren’t Actually Ill

More than 80% of people who tested positive in a national coronavirus survey had none of the core symptoms of the disease the day they took the test, scientists say.

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Researchers at UCL said 86.1% of infected people picked up by the Office for National Statistics Covid-19 survey between April and June had none of the main symptoms of the illness, namely a cough, or a fever, or a loss of taste or smell the day they had the test.

Three quarters who tested positive had no notable symptoms at all, the scientists found when they checked whether people reported other ailments such as fatigue and breathlessness on the day of testing.

Unlike coronavirus testing in the community which focuses on people with symptoms, the ONS infection survey routinely tests tens of thousands of households around the country whether the occupants have symptoms or not.

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The study, reported in Clinical Epidemiology, analysed the symptoms described by more than 36,000 people who were tested between April and June. Only 115 tests came back positive and of those only 27 people, or 23.5%, had symptoms of any description.

When the scientists narrowed the symptoms down to the main three for coronavirus infections, namely a cough, or a fever, or a loss of taste or smell, the number reporting the ailments fell to 16 or 13.9%.

Source: The Guardian

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England COVID-19 lab-confirmed persons positive (by specimen date), deaths (by date of death), hospital admissions & patients in ventilation beds. pic.twitter.com/7Xlvv4z4uN

— UK COVID-19 (@UKCovid19Stats) October 7, 2020