The daily COVID rate in the UK continues to fall

The UK COVID rate has fallen again, but cases in Scotland and Wales have plateaued, a survey suggests.

There are 20,497 daily new symptomatic cases of the virus in the UK on average over the two weeks up to November 29, excluding care homes, according to the Zoe Covid Symptom Study UK Infection Survey.

This compares to 29,311 daily new symptomatic cases a week ago and more than 42,000 six weeks ago, the researchers said.

They say the UK R value is 0.8, and the official R value from the Government Office for Science will be announced later.

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The survey found that daily new cases are continuing to decrease in every region across England.

The Midlands saw a dramatic decrease in daily new cases since the middle of November with an R value of 0.7, the researchers said.

In Scotland, cases have fallen to the same levels of the end of September, but recently plateaued and there are still around 40,000 infectious individuals, according to the survey.

In Wales, cases have fallen to around the same level as the end of the September but have started to rise again.

Tim Spector, lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Symptom Study app and professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said it was “encouraging” to see the falling rates but warned against complacency.

“It’s encouraging to see rates are still falling across most of the UK, and we’re now below 21,000 cases, less than half the peak of the second wave we saw in October.

“However, while we are also seeing steady falls in admissions now, it’s important that we aren’t complacent.

“Even though the UK will start the vaccine roll out next week, many of us won’t be getting one for a few months, so keeping the numbers low and under control is really important for the NHS.

“I’m confident that Zoe’s app data really is the most up-to-date picture we have,” he said.

The Zoe Covid Symptom Study UK Infection Survey figures are based on around one million weekly reporters and the proportion of newly symptomatic users who have positive swab tests.

The latest survey figures were based on data from 11,124 swab tests done between November 15 to 29.