The risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 has dropped to one in 40,000, according to Professor Tim Spector from King’s College London. Prof Spector, who runs the ZOE Covid symptom app which has been downloaded by about 4.5 million Britons, said people should feel optimistic about the results.

He told Sky News: “We have one of the lowest rates in Europe.”

The professor added that the rate is “still dropping slowly at around 10 percent over the last week”.

He explained how the new findings from the symptom app show that “the average risk for someone of having symptomatic Covid is really low at the moment – we’re estimating as low as one in 40,000”.

On Friday, official figures showed that the UK has recorded 2,381 new COVID-19 cases and a further 15 deaths in the latest 24-hour period.

READ MORE BBC lockdown row: Presenter clashes with professor over rules

Prof Spector said: “It looks like at the moment we’re past that pandemic period and we’re moving into what we call the endemic period, where we get low levels of infection and occasional outbreaks that don’t spread to the rest of the population and the general risk is low.”

He added that there are regional variations, including some parts of the country which have hardly any cases.

According to Government figures, more than 22 million people are living in parts of the UK that have not reported a single COVID-19 death in April.

Prof Spector said people in regions with low levels of cases and deaths, especially those who have been vaccinated, should be “much more relaxed and less stressed out” about leaving the house.

He added: “For me this is a very reassuring picture and we should be a bit more upbeat about it.”

DON’T MISS
Brits urged to join EU’s new vaccine passport scheme [UPDATE]
New Public Health England data identifies FIVE Covid hotspot areas [INSIGHT]
Covid vaccine: People in their 30s to be offered jab in two weeks [REVEAL]

The ZOE Covid symptom app runs on Android and iOS and was developed in the UK by King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals and ZOE Global Limited.

It aims to track symptoms and other important data in a large number of people to enable epidemiological results to be calculated.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has also showed that the number of people estimated to have COVID-19 has dropped by 40 percent this week.

Professor Paul hunter from the University of East Anglia said the results were “particularly important” as this week would have highlighted the effect of April 12 easing of restrictions.

He said: “That there is in fact no evidence of an increased transmission risk is reassuring that for the time being at least it looks like the current roadmap is still on target.”