Two per cent of people who don’t wear face masks tested positive for Covid

Only two per cent of people who say they "never" wear a face covering in enclosed spaces tested positive for Covid, new data from the Office for National Statistics reveals.

However, data also show that habitually wearing a covering more than halves the risk of catching the virus.

On Monday, the ONS published a first-of-its-kind analysis of cases identified via the weekly Coronavirus Infection Survey.

It reveals that one in 55 (1.8 per cent) of people who "never" use a face covering in enclosed areas tested positive for Covid between Aug 29 and Sep 11.

The number of infections is fewer than one in 110 (0.9 per cent) for those who said they always wear a mask. After the statisticians accounted for various other factors, they calculated that refusing to wear a mask increased a person's likelihood of testing positive by 59 per cent.

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The average level of infection in England during the study period was between one in 80 and one in 90 people, or between 1.28 and 1.38 per cent of the population.

To determine how Covid prevalence differed depending on mask usage, the ONS quizzed almost 170,000 people on matters including vaccination status, their adherence to Covid rules and aspects of their home life.

Some 1,889 people from this cohort tested positive during the two-week period and data also show that being fully vaccinated reduces a person's risk of infection by around two-thirds, although this varies depending on the type of jab and how long ago it was administered.

Previous infection also slashed a person's likelihood of testing positive by 55 per cent.

Dr James Doidge, senior statistician at the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, said: "As one of the largest surveys of randomly sampled individuals in the world focusing on Covid-19, the ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey is one of the most valuable resources on the planet."

Prof Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at The Open University, said: "I don't think there's anything particularly surprising or new in the headline findings in the ONS article, based on data from the infection survey.

"The headline findings for that fortnight, briefly, are that vaccinated people were less likely to test positive, and people in households of three or more, younger people, people who never wore face coverings indoors, and people who had more social contacts were all more likely to test positive. None of that is surprising."

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