COVID-19 Infection Survey information

You asked

Regarding the CIS survey:

​1. Can you tell me how many people and households the letter was sent to in the UK. Was it the whole of the UK or just England?

2. Can you tell me how many people responded to the letter to say they wanted to take part in the study?

3. How many people across the UK/England are currently having a weekly test under this study? Including children and adults.

4. How many people are having a monthly test under this study?

5. Can you tell me how many of these are positive tests and are they included in the statistics of daily cases recorded?

6. Can you tell me what the Vouchers offered are for. ie, which companies are being paid by yourselves to provide vouchers

We Said

Thank you for your request.

1. Can you tell me how many people and households the letter was sent to in the UK. Was it the whole of the UK or just England?

Letters are sent to households, not individuals. As of Thursday 26 November 2020, 1,168,178 households have been invited into the study across the UK.

2. Can you tell me how many people responded to the letter to say they wanted to take part in the study?

As of Thursday 26 November 2020, 209,230 households have responded to the letter with 333,675 people registering in the survey.

3. How many people across the UK/England are currently having a weekly test under this study? Including children and adults.

The latest full week data we have is for the week commencing the 16 November. During this week 68,106 people were receiving a weekly test.

4. How many people are having a monthly test under this study?

The latest full week data we have is for the week commencing the 16 November. During this week 247,624 people were in the monthly testing category, with only a proportion of those actually receiving their test that week.

5. Can you tell me how many of these are positive tests and are they included in the statistics of daily cases recorded?

We have interpreted this question as meaning how many positive virus swab tests have been recorded for the total number of participants since the start of the survey. The cumulative data to 26 November 2020 is below:

These results are reported as part of the daily statistics of cases recorded.

6. Can you tell me what the Vouchers offered are for. ie, which companies are being paid by yourselves to provide vouchers

SODEXO is the company providing the vouchers, they can be exchanged both online and in-stores.

Further information on the use of vouchers can be found here along with the list of retailers currently available:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/covid19infectionsurveycis