MRC Epidemiology Unit
Remote population surveillance for COVID-19 in the Fenland cohort
The speed at which coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread around the world created a global health emergency. There arose an urgent need for studies to contribute to the understanding of how to mitigate the pandemic and to support decision-making during and after Covid. With the government enforced lockdown easing around the country, one of the key issues was how to avoid further waves of infection.
We used the Fenland Study cohort to measure how many people had evidence in their blood of previous infection with COVID-19 and then to investigate whether it was possible to identify the COVID-19 pre-symptomatic phase using measurements of signs and symptoms collected via a smartphone App to help scientists develop better measures of early detection.
We also sought to investigate how social distancing and the easing of restrictions impacted on other health-related outcomes such as diet and physical activity.
Study publications
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Study news
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