Dr Robin Thompson, Junior Research Fellow in Mathematical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, explains through ITV News why social distancing works.
Dr Thompson explains that Social distancing works because it reduces transmission of the virus effectively and lessens the impact on already stretched healthcare services.
He explains that without social distancing, an individual with Covid-19 can be expected to infect around three others over the course of their infection.
This compounding effect continues, so that after six weeks the initial infected individual will have started a chain of transmission that has led to more than 1,000 infections.
In contrast, however, if everyone in the population reduces their contacts by one third, then each infected individual will only infect two others over the course of their infection.
This means that after one week, there will be three infected individuals in total.
Dr Thompson adds that social distancing is particularly important because we do not know how much transmission is occurring from individuals displaying no or few symptoms.
As a result, we should not try and self-determine whether or not we pose an infection risk.
Instead, we should all take social distancing seriously, and support each other to follow these guidelines during this challenging time.
