The greatest tragedy of England's second wave is that it wasn't inevitable | Charlotte Summers

Over the summer, the government ignored advice about controlling Covid. A new study shows we're paying the price

The number of Covid infections is doubling every nine days in England, and in some areas, such as the south-east, London and the south-west, the R number is now above two. These are the alarming findings from the report of the React-1 study by researchers at Imperial College London, released today.

The study, which obtained nose and throat swabs from a random sample of the population in England that were analysed using a gold standard" PCR test, shows the prevalence of coronavirus infection in England has increased across all age groups. The greatest increase has been among people aged 55-64 years, while the highest overall prevalence (the number of infected people at the time the study was carried out) was among 18 to 24-year-olds.