Only 22% of people testing positive for coronavirus reported having symptoms on the day of their test, according to the Office for National Statistics. This survey proves that the number of people who aren't aware they're carrying the virus is spreading onwards.
Health and social care staff appeared to be more likely to test positive. This comes as deaths from all causes in the UK fell to below the average for the second week in a row.
Between the end of March and June, there were 59,000 more deaths than the five-year average.
Meanwhile, the UK government's daily figures released on Tuesday showed another 155 people have died after testing positive for the virus. This takes the total number of deaths to 44,391.
It comes after 16 new deaths were reported on Monday, but there are often reporting lags over the weekend.
ONS survey on Coronavirus Spread
While the ONS survey includes relatively small numbers of positive swab tests (120 infections in all) making it hard to make any strong conclusions about who is most likely to be infected, there are some patterns coming through in the data:
Those in people-facing health or social care roles, and working outside their homes in general, were more likely to have a positive test.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to have a positive antibody test, suggesting a past infection. White people were the least likely proportionally to test positive for antibodies.
There was also some evidence that people living in larger households were more likely to test positive than those in smaller households.
Although men are more likely to die from coronavirus than women, this study did not find a difference in how likely they were to contract the infection.
Follow the latest news on Google News
