Social distancing and lockdown rules mandated by the British government to reduce the spread of the coronavirus appear to be showing positive results, new research findings revealed Wednesday show.
In a survey of 1,300 people, scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the average daily number of contacts each participant came in contact with reduced by 73% since the social distancing measures were introduced.
Although the lead scientist of the study, John Edmunds, warned that the initial findings are very preliminary and should not indicate “job done,” he suggested in a statement that “if we see similar changes across the UK population, we would expect to see the epidemic to start to decline.”
Britain has implemented strict social distancing rules across the country, limited travel and closed schools and businesses in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The authors of the report found that the measures introduced by the U.K. government are being followed “by a large number of people,” and added the rules “should be used as motivation to keep following UK government instructions.”
As of Wednesday, there are 25,504 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK with 1,793 people deaths and 179 recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
