The number of Covid cases being diagnosed in the capital has increased by 28 per cent in a week as Transport for London was accused of “public disinformation” for claiming rates were falling.
Professor Tim Spector, the lead scientist behind the Zoe Covid tracker app, warned “there had never been a riskier time to travel”, with his data suggesting one in 19 people in the UK have covid symptoms.
City Hall statistics gathered from the NHS show there were 58,092 confirmed cases in London in the week to March 18 – up 28 per cent on the 45,211 in the previous seven days.
But the rate of increase is slowing – it was almost 50 per cent a week ago – and London’s rate is below the national average and is the third lowest of the English regions.
TfL, in its regular email about weekend closures, said it strongly encouraged passengers to continue wearing face masks, though there was no longer a legal requirement to do so following the Government’s decision to lift restrictions “and the decreasing infection rates in London”.
A TfL spokesman on Friday said it was a “badly worded paragraph” that was no longer accurate and which would be removed from future emails.
TfL commissioner Andy Byford said this week that the latest round of testing on the Tube and buses for Covid, carried out by Imperial College London, had again failed to find any traces of the virus.
The Zoe survey, which is based on more than 65,000 swab tests done by volunteers with Covid symptoms, estimates 324,954 new cases a day across the UK – up 26 per cent on last week – and about three million people having the virus.
It estimates London has the highest rate of new cases in England.
Professor Spector said: “After two years of the pandemic, Covid-19 is affecting more people than ever before.
“The Government’s refusal to recognise the wide array of symptoms and to drop isolation advice and testing is likely driving the incredible number of cases we see today.
“Many people are no longer isolating when they have symptoms, either because they feel they don’t have to anymore or because they or their employers still don’t recognise symptoms like runny nose or sore throat as Covid.”
The UK Health Security Agency’s weekly Covid report, published on Thursday afternoon, said London’s diagnosed Covid case rate had increased from 549 to 648.6 cases per 100,000 people week on week.
The London boroughs with the highest case rates were all in the south-west of the city – Kingston, Richmond, Wandsworth, Merton and Sutton. Each had a rate of between 825 and 984 cases per 100,000 population, according to the UKHSA.
Further official data will come at midday on Friday when the Office for National Statistics publishes its “gold standard” weekly infection survey.
The UKHSA said across England cases were highest in the 30 to 39 age group, while hospitalisations were highest in those aged 85 and older.
The number of patients with Covid in London hospitals is at its highest level for more than a month, at 1,940 on Tuesday.
However only 28 per cent of these patients were in hospital because of Covid – the majority had the virus but it was not their primary reason for admission.
In London, it is estimated that 99.5 of adults have Covid antibodies, either from vaccination or previous infection. However this falls to around 80 per cent in children.
Experts believe cases will peak over the next fortnight due to the better weather and start of the Easter school holidays.
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor at UKHSA, said: “The rate at which we’re currently seeing cases increasing is a reminder to us all that the pandemic is not over.
“Hospital admissions and cases of Covid-19 have continued to rise, and we can expect to see further increases before we start to see a decline.”
A TfL spokesman said: “Our weekly travel information referencing decreasing rates of infection in London was referring to one of a number of factors that were considered when we made the decision to no longer require face coverings on the network after the Government’s announcement about the lifting of restrictions from February 24.
“We are sorry that this wasn’t clear in our travel information and we have amended this for the future."
