Covid-19 prevalence in England rose to its highest level on record in October, Imperial College London said, led by a high numbers of cases in children and a surge in the southwest of the country.
Nearly 6% of school-aged children had Covid-19, the researchers found, although there was a drop in prevalence towards the end of the study's period coinciding with the closure of schools for the midterm holiday.
Despite that dip, researchers said rates had doubled in older groups compared to September, a concerning sign as the government races to give booster shots to the most vulnerable. "We did see a doubling in that group, and clearly that's the worry," Paul Elliott, the Imperial epidemiologist who leads the programme, told reporters. "It's