How does the UK compare to other coronavirus-hit countries?

Hannah Twiggs looks at the peaks of Covid-19 across the globe

(Getty/iStock)

Since the first reported case of coronavirus in the UK on 31 January, Britain – along with the US, Spain, Italy, France and Germany – is one of the countries most affected by the outbreak.

But charting the total number of cases reported can be a little misleading, not only because without mass testing we will never know the true number of people infected by the disease, but because it cannot provide a snapshot of what is actually happening day-to-day.

The five-day rolling average of daily new cases from day one of infection, however, paints a much clearer picture of the rise and fall of the outbreak.

Although the UK is behind Spain, Italy, France and Germany in terms of total number cases of Covid-19, it is currently reporting the highest number of daily new cases and is at a higher point in its curve than our European neighbours.

Compared to the sharp drop in new cases for France, Italy and Germany, we are experiencing a slower plateauing of new cases, similar to that of Spain, though it does seem we may have passed the peak and are finally on a downward trajectory.

When we compare the same data with the US, which has just passed one million total cases, and China, which initially led the race, we get some interesting results.

When it comes to total number of cases, we surpassed China on day 73. But if you dig a little deeper, it was actually over two weeks earlier, on day 55, that Britain was gaining more cases on a daily basis. This spelt a difficult month ahead for Britain while China’s daily cases fell to double figures.

It wasn’t until day 64 that the US surpassed the UK on total cases, having overtaken on daily new cases on day 61, and has skyrocketed ever since.