The findings from Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI, covering 8 March to 31 March 2022 (round 19 of the study), show that prevalence in England during this period was 6.37%.

This is the highest recorded figure since the beginning of the study in May 2020 and significantly up on the 2.88% recorded in round 18 (8 February to 1 March 2022).

This means that during the period in which swabs were collected, approximately 1 in 16 people were infected with the virus.

Dame Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said:

These latest study results are another reminder that the pandemic is not over, and there is still a real risk to many of us catching COVID-19 with infection rates so high.

That is why it is sensible to wear a mask in crowded, enclosed spaces, keep indoor spaces ventilated and stay away from others if you have any symptoms of a respiratory illness, including COVID-19.

Vaccination continues to prevent a high number of cases resulting in severe disease, hospitalisation and death and remains the best way to protect us all.

If you have not yet come forward for your primary or booster vaccine I would urge you to do so straight away – the NHS vaccine programme is there to help you and the sooner you are vaccinated the sooner you and your family and friends will be protected.

I’d like to thank each and every REACT participant for contributing to what has been a vital study throughout the course of the pandemic in giving us insight into how COVID-19 has impacted the country.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Thanks to our plan to tackle COVID-19, we are leading the way in learning to live with the virus. We have made huge progress due to the success of our world-leading vaccination programme, access to antivirals for vulnerable people and increased scientific and public understanding about how to manage risk.

Despite high infection rates, the population now has much stronger protection against COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic.

Vaccines remain our best defence and we are now offering spring boosters to the elderly, care home residents and the most vulnerable – so please come forward to protect yourself, your family, and your community, and continue to follow public health guidance if you test positive.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme from Imperial’s School of Public Health, said:

These trends are concerning since when a very high number of people are infected, this may lead to more people becoming seriously ill and needing to go to hospital.

Although restrictions have ended, I would urge people to still behave cautiously to help protect others who might be vulnerable and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms. This will help to slow the spread of the virus and lessen its impact on the NHS and our lives more broadly as we enter this next phase of the epidemic.

Kelly Beaver, CEO at Ipsos MORI, said:

The high prevalence of COVID-19 the REACT study has found in the population highlights the need for continued vigilance as, as a society, we learn to live with COVID-19.

Over the course of REACT over 3.5 million people in England have taken part and have contributed to the enormous success of the study. We’d like to thank all of those people who took part over the last 2 years for helping provide this invaluable resource to government.

The main findings from the report are as follows:

There were 6,902 positives from 109,181 swabs in round 19, giving an overall weighted prevalence of 6.37%. This is an increase in weighted prevalence of over 2-fold from round 18, where the figure stood at 2.88%.

Weighted prevalence was very high and increased between rounds 18 and 19 in all age brackets. Prevalence was highest in 5 to 11-year olds at 8.81%, nearly double the rate reported in the same age bracket in round 18.

There was a possible decrease in prevalence within round 19 in those aged 5 to 17 and a possible plateauing prevalence in those aged 18 to 35 and those aged 35 to 54, but a within-round increasing trend in those aged 55 and over.

Overall, the analyses showed a within-round reproductive number (R) of 1.10 in those aged 18 to 34 years, 1.04 in those aged 35 to 54 years and 1.12 in those aged 55 and over.

A total of 3,383 viral lineages were determined from the 4,038 positive samples up to 22 March; 89.7% (3,035) of these lineages corresponded to BA.2 or its sub-lineages, and 10.2% (346) to BA.1 and its sub-lineages.

There was just one case of the AY.4 Delta sub-lineage detected and one case of BA.3, while there was additional detection of both the XE and XL recombinants.

Exponential models estimated a daily growth advantage for BA.2 of 0.11 compared to all other Omicron sub-lineages. These models estimate that as of 22 March 2022 the proportion of BA.2 in all recorded infections across the country was 94.7%.

Weighted prevalence in round 19 was higher in all regions of the country compared to round 18, ranging from 5.28% in the West Midlands to 8.13% in the South West. The recorded prevalence in the next highest region, the East of England, was 7.17%.

At a lower-tier local authority level, of the 10 highest smoothed estimates of prevalence based on a nearest neighbour method, 7 were in the South West – Plymouth, Cornwall, South Hams, Torridge, Torbay, West Devon and Exeter. The other 3 highest – Braintree, Colchester and Maldon – were in the East of England.

The rate of prevalence among those who had been in contact with a positive case stood at 17.8% compared to 4.00% in those without such contact.

Among those who tested positive and reported on symptoms, 26.7% reported no symptoms in round 19 compared to 28.6% in round 18.

Over 109,000 volunteers in England took part in the study to examine the levels of COVID-19 in the general population between 8 March and 31 March.

• Government also encouraging smaller businesses to adopt calorie labelling as part of its drive to improve the nation’s health and tackle obesity levels
• Part of government’s ongoing commitment to level up the nation’s health

New rules requiring calorie information to be displayed on menus and food labels come into force today (Wednesday April 6 2022).

The changes – which were approved by parliament in 2021 – mean it is now a legal requirement for large businesses with more than 250 employees, including cafes, restaurants, and takeaways to display calorie information of non-prepacked food and soft drinks.

Calorie information will need to be displayed on menus, online menus, third party apps, food delivery platforms and food labels at the point a customer is making their food and drink choices. As well as listing the calories for each food item, menus and labels will also need to include daily recommended calorie needs.

The legislation, which forms part of the government’s strategy to tackle obesity, aims to ensure people can make more informed, healthier choices when it comes to eating food out or ordering takeaways. Displaying calorie information may also encourage businesses to provide lower calorie options for their customers.

It is estimated that overweight and obesity related conditions across the UK cost the NHS £6.1 billion each year. Almost two-thirds (63%) of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity – and 40% of children leave primary school overweight or obese. Obesity is also the second biggest cause of cancer across the UK.

The Covid pandemic has highlighted the impact that obesity can have on people’s health, and as part of its drive to level up the health of the nation, the government is also asking smaller businesses to adopt calorie labelling.

Public Health Minister Maggie Throup said:

It is crucial that we all have access to the information we need to maintain a healthier weight, and this starts with knowing how calorific our food is. We are used to knowing this when we are shopping in the supermarket, but this isn’t the case when we eat out or get a take-away.

As part of our efforts to tackle disparities and level up the nation’s health, these measures are an important building block to making it as easy as possible for people to make healthier food choices.

The most recent official data shows that in 2019/20, there were over one million hospital admissions where obesity was the primary or secondary cause, an increase of 17% on 2018/19 when there were 876,000 obesity-related admissions.

Bridget Turner, Director of Policy, Campaigns and Improvement at Diabetes UK, said:

Obesity is the single greatest risk factor for type 2 diabetes and there are an estimated 13.6 million people at increased risk of developing the condition in the UK.

Tackling this health crisis is vital, so the government’s commitment to make large takeaway, cafe and restaurant chains calorie label the food they sell is a welcome move towards reducing the rising levels of obesity in the UK.

Diabetes UK campaigned strongly for these measures through our Food Upfront campaign. We hope it will bring these large, out of home businesses more in line with the food retail sector when it comes to giving people clear calorie information for the food they buy, hopefully leading to improved menus and healthier options.

There are some exemptions to the legislation including food that is only on a menu for 30 days of the year or less and all alcohol drinks above 1.2% ABV.

The legislation will be enforced by local authorities with the Department of Health and Social Care supporting them with the additional costs of enforcing the policy. Local Authorities are encouraged first to have conversations with those businesses who are not complying with the law. Local authorities can issue improvement notices. Any person who fails to comply with a notice could be guilty of an offence and could be fined £2,500.

Buying food on the go or getting takeaways are increasingly important to people. On average the portions of food or drink that people eat out or eat as takeaway meals contain twice as many calories as their equivalent bought in a shop, where labelling is much more common. Research suggests that food people eat outside the home makes up 20-25% of adult calorie intake

In a survey by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on calorie reduction, 79% of respondents said they think that menus should include the number of calories in food and drinks.

The types of businesses covered by the requirement include:

• restaurants, fast food outlets, cafes, pubs and supermarkets
• home delivery services and third-party apps selling food that is in scope of the legislation
• cafes and takeaways within larger shops and venues, such as supermarkets, department stores, and entertainment venues such as cinemas
• specialist food stores, delicatessens, sweet shops and bakeries
• contract catering – for example, for events and canteens, and
• domestic transport businesses including planes, trains, ferries and other forms of water transport within the UK.

As part of the government’s obesity strategy we have also introduced regulations to restrict the promotion of less healthy foods by location and volume price in store and online, which come into force in October 2022, and  through the Health and Care Bill, restrictions on the advertising of less healthy foods on TV before 9pm and via online paid for advertising.

• Tax cut worth up to £1,000 for eligible businesses announced by the Chancellor at the Spring Statement takes effect today.
• Increase in Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000 benefits around 495,000 businesses – 30% of all UK firms.
• Takes the total number of firms not paying the Health and Social Care Levy to 670,000.

Nearly half a million UK businesses will benefit from a tax cut worth up to £1,000 from today (6 April 2022).

The Employment Allowance has risen from £4,000 to £5,000 – meaning smaller firms will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) bills.

Announced by the Chancellor at last month’s Spring Statement to reduce employment costs, the change takes an extra 50,000 firms out of paying NICs and the Health and Social Care Levy. This increases the total number of businesses not paying NICs and the Levy to 670,000.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:

This tax cut for half a million businesses will help them thrive and grow to help drive our economic recovery.

It comes on top of a suite of wider tax cuts available to firms, including 50% business rates relief, a record fuel duty cut and the super-deduction, the largest two-year business tax cut in our history.

This is the third time the government has increased the Employment Allowance since its introduction in 2014, demonstrating an enduring commitment to supporting smaller businesses. Firms will be able to employ four full-time workers on the National Living Wage without paying employer NICs at all.

94% of businesses benefitting from the £1,000 increase are small and micro businesses, and the sectors that will see the highest numbers of employers benefitting are the wholesale and retail sector (87,000); the professional, scientific and technical activities industry (63,000); and the construction sector (52,000).

Today’s Employment Allowance change is one of a number of measures on offer to spur business growth, including that:

• Last week eligible high street businesses saw the start of a new 50% business rates relief worth almost £1.7 billion, subject to a £110,000 cash cap per business.
• Businesses across the board are also benefitting from a freeze to the business rates multiplier, putting the brakes on bill increases and worth £4.6 billion over the next five years.
• Businesses are already benefitting from our temporary twelve-month-long 5p cut to fuel duty.
• Companies have one year left to make investments that benefit from the super-deduction, the largest two-year business tax cut in modern British history.
• Our landmark Help to Grow programmes are supporting SMEs to adopt productivity enhancing software and to get mini-MBAs.
• We will ensure that our tax regime for innovation is globally competitive and properly incentivises higher business investment in R&D, with further plans to be set out in the Autumn.

Michelle Ovens CBE, founder, Small Business Britain, said:

The Chancellor’s move to increase the employment allowance is welcome, and will certainty play a role in helping those businesses with employees deal with the huge cost-of-living challenges they are currently facing. In particular, it is good to see the immediacy of this rise in employment allowance, which will go towards helping businesses asap.

Martin McTague, National Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, said:

The increase in the Employment Allowance helps small firms do what they do best, creating and sustaining jobs.

This was FSB’s ‘hero ask’ at the Spring Statement, and we have hugely valued the time taken by Treasury officials to work with us on the positive impact this will have not just on work opportunities, but also training and investment. The Chancellor has now raised the Allowance twice since his appointment, stepping up for small businesses.

Lee Harris-Hamer, from White Horse cleaning services based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, said:

As a growing company, we appreciate the opportunity to reduce our annual NI liability because this helps us to invest the savings in other areas like staff training and further growth. Staff are our key asset and we want to be able to continue recruiting and offering more employment opportunities locally. Government has supported us with the change and we are proud to be members of FSB who championed the increase.

Jo Bevilacqua, owner of Serenity Loves hair and beauty salon, Peterborough, said:

This rise in the employment allowance offers welcome breathing space for my small business and others like us across the country. In an age where we are all facing increasing costs from all angles and every penny counts, this will help ease some pressure, allowing us to invest more in staff – whether it is increasing salaries or offering training.

Further information

• From today (6 April) businesses and charities who had employer NICs bills of £100,000 or less in the previous tax year will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer NICs bills. Up until today the Employment Allowance was £4,000.
• NICs policy is reserved, so this increase to the Employment Allowance will take effect across the UK.
• See full details of Employment Allowance eligibility criteria
• Smaller businesses will be able to benefit from the increased Employment Allowance from 6 April 2022. This will either be through payroll software where this has been updated or through a payroll adjustment.