Could the ‘pingdemic’ kill the economic recovery?

Economists are not health experts, and even epidemiologists aren’t sure what to expect, writes Anna Isaac

The self-isolation rules are changing for people working in some essential services and also for the fully vaccinated, come mid-August (PA)

Where’s the peak?” It’s the most important question for just about everyone in the UK right now, especially those confined to their homes.

Epidemiologists grappling to work out how high the UK’s infection rate will go aren’t quite sure. Economists, eager to remind everyone that they don’t have health expertise, don’t know either. No 10 seems to hope it’s before mid-August.

Until then, the impact of both infections is stark, as people are called and asked to isolate by the authorities (a legal obligation) or requested to isolate, “pinged” by the NHS Covid-19 app. It’s not hard to see why: one in 75 people in England, three-quarters of a million, were infected with Covid-19 last week, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. That compares with one in 80 in Scotland, one in 210 in Wales and one in 170 in Northern Ireland.