10:59 p.m. ET, October 28, 2020
England's Covid-19 cases have doubled in the past 3 weeks, according to this study
From CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey in Atlanta
A medical laboratory assistant prepares Covid-19 tests for analysis in a laboratory at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside, England, on Tuesday October 20.
Peter Byrne/PA via AP
The number of coronavirus cases across England has doubled in the past three weeks, according to interim findings published by a team of researchers at
Imperial College London.
"The second wave of the epidemic in England has now reached a critical stage,” the researchers found.
Paul Elliott, the head of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Imperial College, warned more must be done to stop the virus from spreading further.
"Now more than ever we must all work together to curb further spread of the virus and avoid subsequent overwhelming of the health service,” Elliott said.
The data: Researchers tested 85,971 people from across England between October 16-25. They found that prevalence of the virus continues to rise across all age groups and all regions in England, with the biggest increase in those aged 55-64 (from 0.37% to 1.2%). However, the highest rate of positivity was for those aged 18-24 (2.2%).
The geographic distribution of the virus was uneven, with the highest prevalence of the virus found in Yorkshire and The Humber (2.7%) and the North West (2.3%), according to the study.
The number of positive cases was doubling every nine days, the study found.