Our friend Sarah Walker is the Chief investigator of the COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS), a major UK study into the COVID-19 virus. A key investigator in the Penta ID network, Sarah is Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Co-theme Lead for Antimicrobial Resistance and Modernising Microbiology.
The CIS aims to understand how many people of different ages across the UK have already had COVID-19 and how many people have developed antibodies to inform the rate of community transmission in the UK. These data will enable the UK government to better understand how to manage the pandemic and protect the National Health Service from becoming overwhelmed. Initial findings are expected in early May 2020.
In Sarah’s words, “This is one of the largest and most important studies underway into the COVID-19 virus and will transform our understanding of the infection.”
In total, 25,000 people will take part in the pilot phase of the survey, with plans to extend it to up to around 300,000 over the next 12 months.
To know more about CIS, visit the Office for National Statistics website.