ENGLAND’s progress in Euro 2020 may be behind the faster rise of infections seen among men in the past two weeks, says an expert after a recent study, published on Thursday (8), pointed out differences in the infection rate between men and women for the first time in the country.
Testing more than 47,000 volunteers across England between 24 June and 5 July, the Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori's REACT-1 (Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission) study states that men were 30 per cent more likely than the women to test positive for Covid in the past couple of weeks.The report also claims that a big rise of infection has been noted in the younger population from 13-17 and 18-24 year old.
"Different things could be affecting it. I think the degree to which men and women are socialising, is likely to be responsible” Steven Riley, Professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London, said.
"And then because of the timing of that, then it could be that watching football is resulting in men having more social activity than usual,” he said, adding that specific concerns about London's Wembley Stadium hosting games might not be as important as an increase in indoor mixing around the nation.
This is for the first time that scientists have identified a difference in the infection rate between men and women though no direct evidence was cited in the study to show that the men's Euro 2020 soccer championships had fueled the rise in cases.
Latest results from the report also show that one in 170 people (approximately 0.59% of the population) in England have had coronavirus between 24 June and 5 July.
The report also states that double-jabbed over-65 Britons are three times less likely to catch Covid infection as compared to unvaccinated over-65 people.
