Public Health England reveal places you could be more likely to catch coronavirus

Public Health England has released data which shows the events and activities as well as common locations reported by those who tested positive for coronavirus prior to showing symptoms.

In week 46 (November 9th- 15th), the latest Test and Trace figures show 128,808 cases reported for contact tracing.

Of these, 34,328 (26.7%) had a common exposure with at least one other case. In total, there were 9,789 ‘common locations’. A common location is a setting where two or more cases had been reported. 

Supermarkets were the most frequent common exposure followed by attending secondary school.

Topping the list on the latest figures is visiting and working at a supermarket with 1,796 common locations reported (18.3% of total reports).

Second is attending secondary schools with 12.7% of reports, followed by primary school (10.1%), hospital (3.6%) and care homes (2.8%).

The data explains that locations with more visitors are more likely to be identified as common exposures, i.e supermarkets, and that no adjustments have been made for how often a common location is visited.

The data, therefore, means that while, for instance, 18.3% of reports had visited or worked at supermarkets, the data does not explicitly show they caught coronavirus while shopping. 

The latest figures also show that contacts by exposure or activity in week 46 were mostly in the household with over 250,000 contacts.