Transparency data

Coronavirus tests booked or ordered by or for people under 20: 1 August to 10 September 2020

Published 17 September 2020

Applies to England

This statistical note aims to provide further information on the number of under 20s booking a test for COVID-19. The note contains information on people aged under 20 who have successfully booked a test for COVID-19 throughout August until 10 September 2020.

Findings

There has been an increase in the number of tests booked, or home test kit orders placed, among those under 20 years of age since the start of August. Bookings follow a weekly trend, with fewer tests being booked at the weekend. If we compare the first Tuesday in August (5 August) with the first Tuesday in September (1 September), the number of tests booked by people aged under 20 has almost doubled (increased by 95.0%). Over the same period, the total number of tests conducted under pillar 2 in England (as given on the Coronavirus in the UK dashboard) increased by 29.1%.

Those aged between 5 and 9 years have grown in proportion from the beginning of September to make up a larger percentage of those under 20 who have booked a test or placed an order for a home test kit. Tests booked or ordered for this age group increased from a minimum of 21.6% of bookings amongst those aged under 20 on the 12 August to a maximum of 42.2% on the 7 September.

In contrast, the proportion of those booking or ordering a test who are between 15 and 19 years has decreased from 30.0% to 14.5% over the same period. However, this only shows the changes in the proportion of each age group for those under 20, so changes when looking at the whole population of people booking or ordering a test may differ.

In real terms, the increase in the number of tests booked or orders placed has been seen across all age groups. If we compare the first Tuesday in August (5 August) with the first Tuesday in September (1 September), the number of tests booked by people aged between 5 and 9 years has increased by 137.9%.

Similarly, over the same period, the number of tests booked by people aged between 10 and 14 years has increased by 150.3%. Those aged 0 to 4 has seen the smallest increase in tests booked or ordered, increasing by 55.7% and those aged 15 to 19 have seen a moderate increase of 70.4% over the same period.

Methodology

This note looks at the number of tests booked by or for those under the age of 20 through regional testing sites (RTS), local testing sites (LTS) and mobile testing units (MTU) throughout August until 10 September. Additionally, it looks at the number of tests successfully ordered through the home testing route.

The date given is the date at which the test was booked for RTS, LTS and MTU or the date at which the order for a test was successfully placed for home testing kits. As this looks at tests booked, not all of these people will have necessarily completed the test.

The age is calculated from the date of birth and the date of registration for booking a test. People are then split into age brackets, in line with ONS guidance. Date of birth is a mandatory field when booking a test or placing an order for a home test kit, so age is available for almost all tests booked. However, there may occasionally be errors with data entry.

For booking a test, there are several routes to do this:

• people can request to book a test using the self-referral portal
• people can be referred to book a test via their employer
• people can book a test via the 119-call centre
• people can order a home test kit via the home testing portal

For home test kits, only those who successfully placed an order for a test have been included. Those who expressed an interest in booking a test, but did not ultimately place an order, have been excluded. The system for placing an order is separate to the initial expression of interest and so these two systems have been linked using the subject ID to enable this analysis to take place.

Data source: This data is taken from commercial partners who hold pillar 2 data Coverage: This data covers England only Timescale: Data is available from 1 August to 10 September 2020

Figure 1: Total number of tests booked or ordered via pillar 2 testing by age group (under-20s only), 1 Aug to 10 Sept 2020, England

Figure 2: Proportion of tests booked or ordered via pillar 2 testing, split by age group (under-20s only), 1 Aug to 10 Sept 2020, England