MORE than four per cent of people in York currently have symptoms of the coronavirus, according to new research.

An estimated 4.06 per cent of residents in the City of York Council area have symptomatic Covid-19, according to preliminary analysis on data from a new Covid-19 Symptom Tracker app.

An estimated 5.1 per cent of people in the Harrogate district have the symptoms, 3.79 per cent have them in Ryedale, 3.7 per cent in Selby, 3.76 per cent in Hambleton and 3.78 per cent in East Yorkshire.

A spokesperson said that the tracker had been developed by researchers at King’s College London and healthcare science company, ZOE, and it had already been downloaded by 2 million people across the UK.

"Contributors are using the app to track their daily health and any potential Covid-19 symptoms," they said.

"It is also being used by healthcare and hospital workers nationwide.

"The research highlights wide variation across the UK, with Covid hot spots including major cities like London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and Belfast but also rural areas of South Wales currently experiencing problems with bed shortages.

"The research team at King’s College London and ZOE are working day and night to analyse the data to generate new insights about the disease and its progression.

"For example, they have discovered that loss of smell or taste is more likely to be an early symptom of Covid-19 than fever.

"An interactive map allowing anyone to see the distribution of Covid in their area is available at covid.joinzoe.com.

"The researchers have developed a statistical model which analyses millions of Covid Symptom Tracker data points, including thousands of people who have had tests for Covid, in order to predict which combination of symptoms indicate someone is likely to test positive for Covid-19.

"This model is then applied to the UK population aged 20-69. The most predictive individual symptoms, with most important first, were: lack of taste & smell, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever and persistent cough.

"As of April1, there were 1,626,355 users of Covid Symptom Tracker aged 20-69 who had recorded their symptoms, healthy or not.

"The model estimates that 79,405 of these users would be positive if tested (4.9%). As contributors continue to share symptoms, the model will become more accurate and sophisticated.

"In order to create a clearer picture of COVID-19 in each individual area of the UK, and predict the demand on the NHS in each hospital over the coming weeks, the app needs as many participants as possible spending one minute a day to log their health, even if feeling well.

"ZOE and the King's College team are urging people to help support the NHS and their local regions by downloading the app and checking in daily - download here: https://covid.joinzoe.com."

Lead researcher Professor Tim Spector from King’s College London, said:“Accurate real-time data is essential if we are to beat this disease.

"What we are sharing today are just preliminary results from the two million people who are tracking their symptoms daily.

"The more people we can get logging their symptoms on the app, the quicker we will be able to really understand this disease.

"With so many across the country potentially infectious we have to rethink our policy of testing everyone and come up with other methods to rapidly understand the state of every part of our country.

"It is clear levels of infection are very different around the country. We would like to thank every single person who is already participating, and would urge everyone else to download the app and check in every day, whether you are experiencing any symptoms or feeling fine.”