Click here to link to Loughborough University press release
Public Health England have released their data on cases split by age and week. We can turn these into a map visualizing the transmission of the epidemic through ages of cases and through time.
We do this by plotting a three-dimensional chart, a heatmap, where the x axis shows time (split into weeks) and the y axis shows the age of individuals who test positive (split roughly into 10-year groups). The colour of the chart shows the number of cases in each age/week cell.
We work out the cases per 100,000 (a standard epidemiological way of presenting incidence numbers) by finding the population in each age group and dividing the cases by that number (population estimates are from 2018).
The beginning of the epidemic
We can see clearly the very high incidence in the over 80s. We now know that many of these were in care homes (although many were in the community). By 28 June (the last day of this chart), the numbers in each age cohort were relatively low, with an incidence of 18 per 100,000 in the over 80s, but a maximum of 11 cases per 100,000 in the under 80s.
The resurgence
We have produced a new heatmap and scaled the reds to the maximum numbers – so the reds in this heatmap (up to 46 cases per 100,000 in 20 to 29 year-olds) are not as high as the reds in the first heatmap (where we saw a maximum incidence of 232 cases per 100,000 in the over 80s)
What we do see however is a movement from young people (20 to 29-year-olds) to the remainder of the working population (certainly up to 60 year-olds).
Based on data from France, the US, and Spain, that I expect that cases will move to the more vulnerable older population, with the very real risk of hospitalizations and deaths increasing over the weeks ahead. Public Health England has already detected new cases in care homes, and we need to be extremely vigilant and aware to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the early part of the epidemic.
Update 18 September
Latest version of my heatmap – shows cases established in the working population and the over-80s.
Read here to explain why this is a problem: Should We Be Concerned About COVID Transmission In Young People? Yes.
Excellent work.
Is there a specific age group that is driving the resurgence?
Could it be that young adults between 17 and 32 are driving this increase?
What age group would you target for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing?