Men are for the first time more likely than women to test positive for Covid-19 in England.
The provisional results of a study by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori published on Thursday show that one in 170 people was infected in England between June 24 and July 5 and that the number of people infected is doubling every six days on average.
"We have noticed in the current cycle that the prevalence is higher in men than in women," noted Paul Elliott, professor of epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial College London and director of the React program. , a large study measuring the evolution of virus transmission in the population.
"Women are about 30% less likely to test positive in our study, once we adjust
(the results)
for other variables," said Professor Elliott.
The prevalence rate is around 0.7% in males and around 0.5% in females.
The tournament increases the number of social interactions
According to Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at the same facility, these variations in transmission are likely due to differences in social interactions.
“And because of when that happens, watching football may cause men to have more social activity than usual,” he said.
"If I were to speculate on the impact of the Euro, (...) I would think of the increased likelihood of people mingling indoors more frequently than they would otherwise," Professor Riley said. , emphasizing that the risks of contamination are greater indoors.
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England are set to play Italy in the Euro final on Sunday after beating Denmark on Wednesday.
This match was watched by millions of Brits at home or in pubs, like the five previous matches of the selection in this tournament which started on June 11.
Despite a number of contaminations which continues to climb, around 30,000 new cases per day, and the criticisms of certain scientists, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, intends to lift on July 19 most of the latest health measures, including compulsory wearing of the mask and social distancing.
To justify this decision, the government is relying on the success of its vaccination campaign, with more than 64% of adults fully vaccinated.